Truth

Arts of the Americas

1900

Daniel Chester French
American, 1850–1931

In 1898 Daniel Chester French was commissioned to create six allegorical figures representing Bounty, Courage, Integrity, Prudence, Truth, and Wisdom, for the facade of the Minnesota State Capitol Building, in Saint Paul. This plaster statue is a working model and is half the size of the marble figure that appears, paired with Integrity. In his portrayal of Truth, French used symbols drawn from classical and Renaissance sources. The mirror she holds reflects life without illusions; her partial nudity alludes to the nature of truth.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Daniel Chester French (Sculptor)
Title: Truth
Place: New York (Object made in)
Date: 1900
Medium: Plaster
Dimensions: H.: 148.6 cm (58 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Brooks McCormick; Ethyl T. Scarborough Endowment
Reference Number: 1984.531
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/102592/manifest.json

“The New Capitol in St. Paul,” Architectural Record 10, 3 (Jan. 1901), 280–88 (ill.).
“The New Minnesota State Capitol at St. Paul,” Western Architect 4 (Oct. 1905), 1–15 (ill.).
Julie C. Gauthier, The Minnesota Capital Official Guide and History (St. Paul, 1908), 11 (ill.).
Naftalin Hillerest, The Civic Work in Sculpture of Daniel Chester French as Connected with Public Buildings (Beloit, Wis., 1912).
Lorado Taft, The History of American Sculpture (Macmillan, 1924).
Adeline Adams, Daniel Chester French: Sculptor (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1932), 50.
Margaret French Cresson, David Chester French (1947), 62.
Margaret French Cresson, The Life of Daniel Chester French: Journey into Fame (Harvard University Press, 1947), 307.
Wayne Craven, Sculpture in America (New York, Thomas Y. Crowell, 1968).
Albert Hoffmeyer, “The Minnesota State Capitol,” Northwest Architect 33 (May/June 1969), 50–51.
Morgan William Towner, The Politics of Business in the Career of an American Architect: Cass Gilbert, 1878–1905 (Ann Arbor, University Microfilms International, 1972).
Neil B. Thompson, Minnesota’s State Capitol: The Art and Politics of a Public Building (Minnesota Historical Society, 1974), 37–38 (ill.).
Rena Neumann Coen, Painting and Sculpture in Minnesota, 1820–1914 (University of Minnesota Press, 1976), 94.
Henry–Russell Hitchcock and William Seale, Temples of Democracy: The State Capitols of the United States of America (New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976).
Michael Richman, Daniel Chester French: An American Sculptor (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1976).
Cass Gilbert, “The Greatest Element of Monumental Architecture,” American Architect 136, 2574 (Aug. 5, 1979), 141–44.
The American Renaissance, exh. cat., (Brooklyn Museum, 1979).
David Weir, “Old Bronze/New World,” in Art/World 6, 8 (Apr./May 1982), 9.
Pocketguide to The Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 1983), 37, fig. 64.
The Art Institute of Chicago Annual Report, 1984–1985 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1985), pl. 2.
Marina Warner, Monuments and Maidens: The Allegory of the Female Form (Atheneum, 1985).
Bailey Van Hook, “Milk White Angels of Art: Images of Women in Turn–of–the–Century America,” Woman’s Art Journal (Fall 1990/Winter 1991), 23–29.
“From the Lyrical to the Epic: Images of Women in American Murals at the turn of the Century,” Winterthur Portfolio 26, 1 (Spring 1991), 63–80.
Michael Conforti, ed., Minnesota 1900: Art and Life on the Upper Mississippi, 1890–1915, exh. cat. (University of Delaware Press, 1994).
Judith A. Barter et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 284–85, no. 142.

New York City, Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Carved and Modeled: American Sculpture, 1810–1940, 1982, cat. 25.

St. Paul Institute of Arts and Science, Minn., by 1968; Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul, 1969; Private collection, St. Paul, Minn., 1976; Hirschl and Adler, New York City, 1982; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1984.

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