Woman in White

A fascinating look at the partnership of artist James McNeill Whistler and his chief model, Joanna Hiffernan, and the iconic works of art resulting from their life together

In 1860 James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) and Joanna Hiffernan (1839–1886) met and began a significant professional and personal relationship. Hiffernan posed as a model for many of Whistler’s works, including his controversial Symphony in White paintings, a trilogy that fascinated and challenged viewers with its complex associations with sex and morality, class and fashion, academic and realist art, Victorian popular fiction, aestheticism and spiritualism. This luxuriously illustrated volume provides the first comprehensive account of Hiffernan’s partnership with Whistler throughout the 1860s and 1870s—a period when Whistler was forging a reputation as one of the most innovative and influential artists of his generation. A series of essays discusses how Hiffernan and Whistler overturned artistic conventions and sheds light on their interactions with contemporaries, including Gustave Courbet, for whom she also modeled. Packed with new insights into the creation, marketing, and cultural context of Whistler’s iconic works, this study also traces their resonance for his fellow artists, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edgar Degas, John Singer Sargent, and Gustav Klimt.  

O privire fascinanta asupra parteneriatului artistului James McNeill Whistler si a modelului sau principal, Joanna Hiffernan, si a operelor de arta iconice rezultate din viata lor impreuna. In 1860, James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) si Joanna Hiffernan (1839–1886) s-au intalnit si a inceput o relatie profesionala si personala semnificativa. Hiffernan s-a prezentat ca model pentru multe dintre lucrarile lui Whistler, inclusiv controversata sa pictura Symphony in White, o trilogie care a fascinat si a provocat spectatorii cu asociatiile sale complexe cu sexul si moralitatea, clasa si moda, arta academica si realista, fictiunea populara victoriana, estetismul si spiritualism.