Pierre federspiel · (1864–1924)
Allegory of the Truth
technical sheet
| ARTIST | Pierre Federspiel |
| DATE | 1900 |
| material | White Carrara marble |
| DIMENSIONS | Life-size |
| Signature | P. Federspiel / 1900 |
| PROVENANCE | Entrance Hall, avenue des Amandiers 1, Brussels • Belgium |
| CONSERVATION | Private Collection • Belgium |
about the work
This spectacular marble ranks among the major works of Pierre Federspiel. Rising from a wave-like support in a beautiful serpentine S-curve, partially draped and holding up a mirror in her raised left hand, the female nude is a testament to the sculptor’s skill and originality. The composition is probably inspired by Pierre-Jules Cavelier’s La Vérité (1853), borrowing the iconography of a woman lifting a veil and raising a mirror to symbolise Truth or Beauty Unveiled.
The figure’s contemporary hairstyle and individual features nonetheless contrast with the idealised model of Cavelier, suggesting the statue was in part conceived as a portrait. As with the nude “Venuses” of the Flavian period, in which women of status were immortalised unclothed, these delicate features may belong to the lady of the Brussels house for which the work was made in 1900. Idealism and fin-de-siècle realism combine here in a composition of rare elegance, its allure heightened by the mystery of the sitter’s identity.
the ARTIST
Pierre federspiel
1864 — 1924
Though eclipsed in fame by his French confrères, Pierre Federspiel was Luxembourg’s foremost sculptor of the late 19th and early 20th century. Having studied first at the Academy in Munich and then at the Académie Julian in Paris, he began his career in the private studio of Alfred Boucher, a close friend of Auguste Rodin. He first exhibited at the Cercle Artistique in Luxembourg in 1894, followed by several appearances at the Paris Salon.
His oeuvre ranged from public monuments to bourgeois portraiture: the Monument Dicks et Lentz on the Place d’Armes, the frieze of Countess Ermesinde, and the heads adorning the façade of the Gare Central. Revered by his countrymen, he lives on in the Luxembourgish street that bears his name.
