This is “Truth coming from the well armed with her whip to chastise mankind” (1896) by French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme.
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Gérôme was inspired by the philosopher Democritus, who wrote “of truth we know nothing, for truth is in a well". It is thought she is naked to represent la vérité nue, "the naked truth”
In the last decade of his life, Gérôme made at least four paintings showing Truth a nude woman in a well. This is “Truth at the Bottom of a Well” (1895)
“The nurturer Truth lies in a well, having been killed by liars and actors”, 1895)
“Truth is at the Bottom of the Well” (1895)
The model who posed for Truth Coming from the Well is likely to be Emma Dupont, one of Gérôme’s favourite models. He liked creating paintings of them working together, like these
This photograph shows Jean-Léon Gérôme with Emma, posing for ‘Omphale,’ in 1885.
This work was simply called “Nude (Emma Dupont)”, ca. 1876.
In 1896 Paul Dollfus included a brief biography of Emma Dupont in Modèles d’artistes. Dollfus reported that Dupont became a model in desperation. She was abandoned by her lover in Paris when she was just 17
She had nowhere to go and loitered outside a café her lover frequented, hoping he might turn up. Eventually, the proprietor asked why she was not coming inside. Emma burst into tears & explainer her situation. The owner took her to the studio of Alfred Stevens to model
To begin with, Emma didn’t pose nude but another artist Fernand Cormon convinced her there was far money money to be made in disrobing. She began working for Tony Faivre, Auguste Feyen-Perrin, and finally Gérôme, who soon monopolized her time.
Dollfus reported that her regular income allowed her to maintain a small apartment on the boulevard de Clichy. It was decorated with works given to her by the artists for whom she posed. 19thc-artworldwide.org/spring14/new-d…
