The model of "La Verité Méconnue" was conceived on Dalou's return to Paris in 1890, following almost two decades of self-imposed exile in London. The artist expressed his support for Alfred Dreyfus with this work artistically. The iconography of the disconsolate seated nude with a cracked mirror suggests Truth abandonned and unrecognized. He also authorized reductions of the work which were sold for Dreyfus' defense.