The truth that comes out of the well

The French painter Jean-Leon Jerome (1824-1904) studied with the famous painters Paul Delaroche and Charles Gleyre , who instilled in him for the rest of his life a passion for travel, studying the customs of different nations, as well as a special love for the East. The first paintings of Jerome were highly appreciated by one of the most respected and influential art critics - Theophile Gautier , who later became his friend. At the dawn of the birth of popular culture, the provincial Jerome went to meet the new public of the emerging bourgeois France , becoming famous among the salon aristocracy, introducing it to both his academic portraits and melodramatic canvases, as well as paintings about Napoleonic campaigns and life in Arabian bazaars, as well as works on mythological and erotic themes. At the peak of his career in art, Jerome was a regular guest of the imperial family and held the position of professor at the School of Fine Arts . His studio was a meeting place for artists, actors and writers, and he himself became a legendary and respected master, known for his caustic wit, neglect of discipline, but strictly regulated teaching methods and extreme hostility to impressionism ^{[1] [2] [3] [ 4]} .

Since the end of the 1850s, Jerome was incredibly adventurous in the selection of popular historical stories, from ancient times to modern France . At the same time, Jerome embarked on a rather eclectic rethinking of his academism , largely influenced by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres , who painted his paintings through the prism of personal and everyday life, as well as teacher Delaroche, who chose a more theater-friendly approach to painting the historical plots. Jerome began to work to achieve a balance between realism of almost documentary accuracy and a scientific approach to the imaginative reconstruction of historical events, developing the ability to masterfully manage the narrative potential of the plots of his paintings, which is why they made an indelible impression on the audience. Jerome rejected poetic generalizations and idealization of the main characters, however, the artist's balanced and meticulous details technique practically made people direct witnesses of past events ^{[5] [6] [7]} . However, Jerome was often accused of working for the public’s needs and not thinking about the future demand for the plots of his paintings ^[8] .

In this regard, Jerome chose the theme of the Dreyfus case , acute for French society of that time, which reached such a scale within the framework of French society that it was impossible for any representative of art to stay away from displaying it using one of the methods available to them ^[9] . The “Dreyfusars”, that is, the defenders of Alfred Dreyfus , included such well-known French intellectuals as Emil Zola , , , and Jerome himself ^[9] . There are a number of versions of Jerome’s painting on the Dreyfus case ^{[9] [10] [11]} . As the name, he used the phrase “Truth lies at the bottom of the well” ascribed to Democritus ( Greek ἐτεῇ δὲ οὐδὲν ἴσμεν, ἐν βυθῷ γάρ ἡ ἀλήθεια ; lat. In puteo ... veritatem iacere demersam ) from “Divine Establishments ^{[12] 11} Lactation ^] . In 1894, Jerome painted in oil on canvas a picture entitled “Liars and hypocrites over the Truth killed and lying in the pit” ( Latin: Mendacibus et histrionibus occisa in putes jacet alma veritas ), which shows the consequences of harsh violence against a woman in an allegorical image of Truth , lying killed at the bottom of the well, while the spirit of truth emanates from her body ^[9] . In 1895, this work was exhibited at the ^[9] . After Dreyfus was imprisoned on the Black Island and the evidence appeared that Ferdinand Esterhazy was the true culprit, in 1895 Jerome presented a real, new painting entitled “Truth emerging from a well armed with a whip to punish humanity” ( French La Vérité sortant du puits armée de son martinet pour châtier l'humanité ) ^{[10] [9]} . In the same year, Jerome's painting was exhibited at the Salon of French Artists ^[9] .

The picture is painted in oil on canvas, and its dimensions are 91 × ​​72 cm ^[13] . It is visible on it as if a resurrected figure of the naked Truth, having got rid of good calm, but with a vengeance returning to it, is selected from the well with a whip in his hand to punish humanity for its errors ^{[9] [10]} . Giving intentionally an unnatural appearance to the woman’s thigh and one leg, which she threw over the edge of the well, having previously grabbed it with both hands, Jerome wanted to show that nothing can be ugly in the truth and in the creation of nature ^[14] . Moreover, the woman's facial features are distorted, as if she intends to yell at the viewer. When looking at work, it is impossible to get rid of the feeling of awkwardness in front of a young woman with a whip, ready in her warlike image for battle and wanting to punish those who do not want to listen to her ^{[10] [13]} . Compositionally and ideologically, the picture is similar to the work of the same name by Deb-Ponsan , also dedicated to the Dreyfus case ^[13] . The naked woman of Jerome’s work is also similar to the girls by Jules Joseph Lefebvre , Luke-Olivier Merson and Paul Baudry , who often resorted to portraying nudity in their work ^[10] .

According to , biographer Jerome, this picture hung over the artist’s bed for a long time as “a noble goddess who was constantly respected by the owner.” When Jerome passed away, he was found motionless with his hand raised up and his face turned to the picture, on which the look of the highest respect and farewell to the Truth of his whole life froze ^[10] . Around the masterfully written last significant work of Jerome, disputes regarding a particular interpretation of the plot have never subsided ^[13] . Some critics believe that Jerome expressed his artistic convictions in this picture, which consisted in the rejection of impressionism and other new trends in painting at the end of the 19th century ^{[10] [11] [15]} . An example of this is the fact that at the 1900 World's Fair the artist immediately stopped French President Emile Loubet and in a conversation with him called the work of Claude Monet , the author of Breakfast on the Grass , “a shame on French art” ^[10] . Currently, a number of art critics reject the hypothesis that the Dreyfus affair ^{[10] [11] [15]} inspired the creation of a picture of Jerome.

In 1978, the painting was acquired by the Museum of Anna de Beauguis in Moulins ( Allier , Auvergne , France ), where it is currently located ^[10] . Of the four well-known works of Jerome, one oil painting ( 100 x 72 cm ) is in the Lyon Museum of Fine Arts , the second oil sketch ( 38 x 25.5 cm ) together with a black chalk sketch on paper ( 23.8 x 22.4 cm ) - at in Vesoul , and the third pencil sketch on beige paper ( 32.4 x 22.4 cm ) at ^[13] .

• “Truth that comes out of the well” (unopened) (inaccessible link) . Museum of Anna de Bozhe . Date of treatment October 9, 2016. Archived October 22, 2016. (fr.)