Whistler’s Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan – a ‘beautifully focused’ show

New exhibition explores the relationship between James McNeill Whistler and his muse

Symphony in White, No. 1
Symphony in White, No. 1: a ‘succès de scandale’
(Image credit: Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

You might have never heard Joanna Hiffernan’s name, but you probably know her face, said Alastair Smart in The Daily Telegraph. Born in Ireland in the 1840s, Hiffernan was the lover of the American artist James McNeill Whistler, and the model for his 1862 painting Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl – one of the most controversial works of its era.

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