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Truth Coming Out of Her Well

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Year
  
1896

Medium
  
Created
  
1896

Truth Coming Out of Her Well httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Dimensions
  
91 cm × 72 cm (36 in × 28 in)

Location
  
Musée Anne de Beaujeu, Moulins, Allier

Jean-Léon Gérôme artwork
  
The Execution of Marsha, The Duel After the Masquerade, The Cock Fight, Cleopatra and Caesar, The Slave Market

Truth coming from the well armed with her whip to chastise mankind (French title: La Vérité sortant du puits armée de son martinet pour châtier l'humanité) is an 1896 painting by the French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme. It is also known as La Vérité (French: Truth).

In 1895, Gérôme had painted a similar work, Mendacibus et histrionibus occisa in puteo jacet alma Veritas (English: The nurturer Truth lies in a well, having been killed by liars and actors). It has been suggested that both paintings (like a similar, later work by Édouard Debat-Ponsan) were a comment on the Dreyfus affair. It has also been suggested that the painting is an expression of Gérôme's hostility towards the Impressionist movement, to which he was violently opposed. However, in a preface that Gérôme wrote for Émile Bayard's Le Nu Esthétique, he refers to the influence photography had had upon painting: "Photography is an art. It forces artists to discard their old routine and forget their old formulas. It has opened our eyes and forced us to see that which previously we have not seen; a great and inexpressible service for Art. It is thanks to photography that Truth has finally come out of her well. She will never go back." (French: "La photographie est un art. La photographie force les artistes à se dépouiller de la vieille routine et à oublier les vieilles formules. Elle nous a ouvert les yeux et forcé à regarder ce qu'auparavant nous n'avions jamais vu, service considérable et inappréciable qu'elle a rendu à l'Art. C'est grâce à elle que la vérité est enfin sortie de son puits. Elle n'y rentrera plus.")

The expression refers to a widespread translation of an aphorism of the philosopher Democritus, "Of truth we know nothing, for truth is in a well [lit. in an abyss]." The nudity of the model refers to the expression 'the naked truth'. According to his biographer Charles Moreau-Vauthier, Gérôme slept with the painting above his bed and was found after his death with his arm stretched out towards it in a gesture of farewell.

The painting was exhibited at the Salon in 1896. Since 1978 it has been part of the permanent exhibition at the Musée Anne de Beaujeu in Moulins, France.

References

Truth Coming Out of Her Well Wikipedia