The drama of this poetic allegory is a twist on the original painting by Jules Lefebvre of a vision of truth shining a light in the darkness. In Gottlieb’s version of Truth, she stands stands in a gloomy forest with stormy skies above, enchanted by the beauty of her own reflection in the mirror. There is still a hint of hope in the last remnants of light above the horizon and in the subtler aspects of Gottlieb’s sympathetic depiction of the female form. She is still a luminous young woman, not fully corrupted, a modern goddess to fit the skeptical realism of our times. The painting hangs at a heroic proportion, slightly larger than life size and was acquired by a private collector in 2012.
