The Truth (Lefebvre)

{{Short description|1870 painting by Jules Joseph Lefebvre}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}

{{Infobox artwork

| image_file = La Vérité, par Jules Joseph Lefebvre.jpg

| image_size = 200px

| alt =

| title = The Truth

| other_language_1 = French

| other_title_1 = La Vérité

| artist = Jules Joseph Lefebvre

| year = 1870

| medium = Oil on canvas

| height_metric = 264

| width_metric = 112

| museum = Musée d'Orsay

| city = Paris

}}

The Truth is an 1870 oil-on-canvas painting by the French painter Jules Joseph Lefebvre. It is in the Musée d'Orsay, in Paris, since 1982.{{Cite web|url=https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/la-verite-917|title=La Vérité|website=musee-orsay.fr|access-date=26 December 2023}}

The Truth was exhibited during the 1870 Salon and was bought by the French state in 1871.

The painting depicts a naked woman standing, facing the viewers. Her right hand extends above her head, holding a golden mirror, her left hand seems to be holding a stick or staff, and her right leg is bent, shifting weight onto her left hip.

The model for the painting was the well-known French actress {{ill|Sophie Croizette|fr}}. Although her career was primarily in theater, Croizette also modeled for several artists, most notably including her brother-in-law Carolus-Duran's Equestrian Portrait of Mademoiselle Croizette.{{cite book |author-link=Louis Viardot |date= 1883 |title= The Masterpieces of French Art Illustrated |volume= 1 |url= https://archive.org/details/masterpiecesoffr01viaruoft |location= Philadelphia |publisher= Gebbie & Co. |page= |isbn= |access-date= 2025-01-23}}

The painting is contemporary with the first small scale model made by Lefebvre's fellow-Frenchman Frédéric Bartholdi for what became the Statue of Liberty, striking a similar pose, though fully clothed.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120032725 |title=A One-Picture Painter|newspaper=Evening News|issue=13,776|location=New South Wales, Australia|date=3 August 1911|access-date=6 March 2017|page=6|via=National Library of Australia}}