James McNeill Whistler knew that his statement about this work, “My painting simply represents a girl dressed in white standing in front of a white curtain,” was a provocation to viewers. A portrait of his mistress Joanna Hiffernan, posed in an informal housedress with flowing hair, an impassive expression, and standing on a white bearskin rug, told Victorians perhaps more than they wished to know about Hiffernan’s worldiness, yet is a tour de force of painted texture and a study of white.