Aimé-Jules Dalou (French, 1838-1902)
La Verite Meconnue (“The Truth Revealed”), 1900
Bronze, brown patina, 13 ¼ H. inches
Signed: DALOU
Inscribed: Susse Fres Edt Paris Cire Perdue
The present model, known as La Vérité Méconnue or The Truth Revealed, belongs to a series of female nudes that Dalou produced between 1890 and 1900.
Dalou sculpted two versions of the composition. In the first version, the sitter’s hair is tied in a chignon and the mirror at her feet faces towards the front of the sculpture. In the second version the sitter’s hair isn’t tied and the mirror faces towards the back of the work.
The first version was only cast in one (20.5cm) size. The second version was cast in two sizes (14cm and 35cm). Both versions were cast by Susse Fres, Paris.
The present work is a cast of the second version in the larger size.
Aime Jules Dalou was one of the most prolific and successful monument makers in France during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Dalou received his first commission for a public monument for the Royal Exchange in London having been forced into exile to England because of his left-wing political views. This commission was a major turning point in the artist’s career. When he returned to Paris after the amnesty of 1879-80, only monuments celebrating the greatest men of ideals of his era could completely satisfy him. In Paris during the 1890s a number of Dalou’s monuments were erected and inaugurated to commemorate distinguished individuals. Each of these individuals was someone with whom Dalou felt a particular artistic, social, or political affinity.
Reference: Aimé-Jules Dalou (1897-1902). Online exhibition catalogue. London: Bowman Sculpture, 2014. Web. 29 November 2014.