The Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan and James McNeill Whistler

July 3 – October 10, 2022
East Building Mezzanine

Joanna Hiffernan’s close professional and personal relationship with artist James McNeill Whistler lasted more than two decades—yet who was she? She is featured in numerous works by Whistler, including his three famous “Symphony in White” paintings, which are being shown together for the first time in the United States. While the intriguing “woman in white” has inspired artists from the Victorian era to today, little has been shared about Hiffernan and her influential role in Whistler’s life and work—until now.

Selected Works

A young woman with pale white skin, wearing a long, flowing white dress, stands in front of a white curtain in this full-length, vertical portrait. Her red hair cascades down over and behind her shoulders. She looks to our left with green eyes, her pink, full lips closed. Her dress has puffed shoulders above a white-on-white striped pattern on the long sleeves. She stands on an animal pelt; it is not clear whether it is a wolf or a bear. The pelt spans the width of the painting and overlaps a blue patterned carpet. The animal’s mouth gapes to show sharp teeth and its glassy eyes are wide open—and it seems to look at us. The woman holds a white lily by her side in her left hand, while yellow and purple pansies lie scattered on the pelt.

James McNeill Whistler, Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl, 1861–1863, 1872, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Harris Whittemore Collection, 1943.6.2. Image: Courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington

James McNeill Whistler, Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl, 1864, oil on canvas, Tate, London, Bequeathed by Arthur Studd 1919, N03418. Image: © Tate, London 2017

James McNeill Whistler, Symphony in White, No. 3, 1865–1867, oil on canvas, The Henry Barber Trust, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, The University of Birmingham, 39.24. Image: Bridgeman Images

We seem to look down at a woman with pale skin and two men with ruddy complexions sitting at a table near a railing overlooking a boat-clogged waterway in this horizontal painting. Only the corner of the table is visible in the lower right corner. The woman sits next to one man on the side farther from us, and the third person leans onto the table from the right, along the edge of the composition. The table is covered with a dark ruby-red floral cloth. The red-haired woman wears a dark green dress and leans back, extending her right arm along the railing. Her back is to the river below and she gazes directly ahead, to our right. The dark-haired, bearded man sitting to her left, our right, speaks to the clean-shaven, dark-haired man wearing a cap who sits across from him. Sailboats, rowboats, a steamship, and vessels of every size occupy much of the waterway. Rows of buildings extend along the river to our left and right, and trees line the distant horizon at the center of the painting. The river is a tan color and the watery blue sky is hazy.

James McNeill Whistler, Wapping, 1860–1864, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, John Hay Whitney Collection, 1982.76.8. Image: Courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington

James McNeill Whistler, Jo, 1861 (state i/i), drypoint on ivory laid paper, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection, 1949.5.536. Image: Courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington

James McNeill Whistler, A White Note, oil on canvas, The Lunder Collection, Colby College Museum of Art, 021.2011

James McNeill Whistler, The Artist in His Studio (Whistler in His Studio), 1865–1872, 1895, oil on paper mounted on panel, The Art Institute of Chicago, Friends of American Art Collection, 1912.141. Image: The Art Institute of Chicago/Art Resource, NY

James McNeill Whistler, Weary, 1863 (state iv/vi), drypoint on ivory Japan paper, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Myron A. Hofer, 1947.10.5. Image: Courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington

James McNeill Whistler, Purple and Rose: The Lange Leizen of the Six Marks, 1864, oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art, John G. Johnson Collection, 1917, Cat. 1112

James McNeill Whistler, Battersea Reach, 1862/1863, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Corcoran Collection (Bequest of James Parmelee; Frame restored in memory of Anne Wallick and Marianna Grove, members of the Women’s Committee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art), 2014.79.35. Image: Courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington

Gustave Courbet, Jo, la belle Irlandaise, 1865–1866, oil on canvas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929, 29.100.63

James McNeill Whistler, Sleeping Woman, 1863, chalk and charcoal on cream wove paper mounted on paperboard, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection, 1948.11.306

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ecce Ancilla Domini! (The Annunciation), 1849–1850, oil on canvas, Tate, London, Purchased 1886, N01210. Image: © Tate, London 2017

George Frederic Watts, Lady Dalrymple also known as Sophia Dalrymple, 1851–1853, oil on canvas, Watts Gallery, COMWG.200. Image: Bridgeman Images

John Everett Millais, A Somnambulist, 1871, oil on canvas, Private Collection, Delaware, Courtesy of the Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington. Image: Bridgeman Images

Albert Herter, Portrait of Bessie (Miss Elizabeth Newton), 1892, oil on canvas, High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Purchase with funds from the Margaret and Terry Stent Endowment for the Acquisition of American Art and High Museum of Art Enhancement Fund, 2000.162

Frederick Walker, The Woman in White, 1871, gouache on paper, Tate, London, Presented by Sir Claude Phillips in memory of his sister Eugenie Phillips 1906, N02080. Image: © Tate, London 2017

Fernand Khnopff, Portrait of Madeleine Mabille, 1888, oil with pencil on mahogany panel, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Heinz Family Acquisition Fund, 93.120. Image: Photograph © 2020 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Andrée Karpelès, Symphonie en blanc, 1908, oil on canvas, Musée d’Arts de Nantes, Inv. 2071. Image: Cécile Clos/Musée d’Arts de Nantes

John Singer Sargent, Fumée d’ambre gris, 1880, oil on canvas, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1955.15. Image: Courtesy Clark Art Institute, clarkart.edu

National Gallery of Art