STANDING in front of great portraiture in any gallery around the world and the painter is noted in the information panel. What is often missing though are the names of the muses who influenced artists and helped shape their creative vision, writes historian Sharon Slater.
Édouard Manet’s painting of Olympia would not be the same without the model Victorine Meurent. Pablo Picasso’s The Weeping Woman might not have been weeping without the inspiration from Dora Maar.
Although many of the great muses were associated with a single artist, one Limerick woman became the inspiration for two major nineteenth century painters. The beautiful red-haired Joanna Hiffernan became the muse, companion, and collaborator of both James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Gustave Courbet, leaving a subtle but significant mark on the history of European art.
Joanna Hiffernan was born in 1843 in Caherelly, near Ballybricken, County Limerick, to Patrick Hiffernan and Anne Hickey. She was baptised on April 26,1843, in the Roman Catholic church of Ballybricken and Bohermore.
Her early childhood coincided with the devastation of the Great Famine. Like many Irish families seeking survival and opportunity, the Hiffernans moved to London in the late 1840s, where as a Catholic she was in the minority. Her father worked as a calligraphy teacher, but despite his profession, spelling mistakes in Joanna’s surviving letters indicate she likely received only limited formal education.
In 1860, Hiffernan’s life changed dramatically when she met the American painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler at a studio in Rathbone Place, London. She was 17 years old at the time, while Whistler was nearly a decade older. The two soon began a relationship and Hiffernan quickly became his primary model and muse.
Her striking appearance of a pale complexion and long copper-red hair made her instantly recognisable. This fascinated Whistler, who once described it in a letter as “the most beautiful hair you have ever seen”. In Victorian culture, red hair was sometimes associated with sensuality and unconventional femininity, which contributed to the provocative reception of some of the paintings in which she appeared.
Hiffernan posed for Whistler’s iconic painting Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl. When the painting was rejected by the Paris Salon and later displayed at the Salon des Refusés, it caused a sensation.
The redhead’s direct gaze and the painting’s unconventional composition challenged traditional portrait conventions and contributed to its controversial reception. The work is now held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
She was the inspiration for Whistler’s entire “White” series, including Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl and Symphony in White, No. 3. Beyond these paintings, she likely modelled for the female figure in Wapping and appeared in a number of Whistler’s etchings and illustrations.
Hiffernan’s importance to Whistler extended well beyond modelling. His biographers, Elizabeth Robins Pennell and Joseph Pennell, described her as intelligent, sympathetic, and a vital companion.
In 1866, when Whistler travelled to South America, he granted her power of attorney over his affairs and reportedly named her as the sole heir in his will. She managed his household finances and acted as an agent for the sale of his paintings, sometimes introducing herself to art dealers as “Mrs Abbot”.
Despite their close relationship, Whistler’s family strongly disapproved of her as models at the time were often viewed with suspicion and sometimes equated with prostitution. Differences in social class may also have contributed to the hostility. When Whistler’s mother, Anna McNeill Whistler, visited London in 1864, Hiffernan was required to leave the household.
Travelling to Paris with Whistler in the early 1860s, she became part of the city’s vibrant artistic community. She moved easily among artists and writers, even attending séances at the home of the poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
During this period, she met the French realist painter Gustave Courbet, who was captivated by her appearance and personality. Courbet painted her in the celebrated portrait Jo, la belle Irlandaise. Several slightly different versions of this portrait were produced while Courbet, Whistler, and Hiffernan stayed in the seaside town of Trouville in 1865. One version is now held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Hiffernan later posed again for Courbet in Le Sommeil, a sensual painting depicting two women sleeping together. Many historians believe that Hiffernan and Courbet may have had a brief romantic relationship during this time. She has also been speculatively linked to Courbet’s provocative painting L’Origine du monde, though most scholars now believe the model was the dancer Constance Quéniaux.
Even after their romantic relationship ended in the early 1870s, Hiffernan continued to play an important role in Whistler’s life. She helped raise his illegitimate son, Charles James Whistler Hanson, who was born following an affair between Whistler and a maid named Louisa Fanny Hanson. The child reportedly referred to her affectionately as “Auntie Jo”.
Evidence from the 1881 British census shows Hiffernan living with her sister Bridget Agnes Hiffernan and the young Charles Hanson in London. During her later years, she appears to have lived intermittently in London and elsewhere in Europe, and some reports suggest she spent time in Nice in the south of France selling antiques and works by Courbet.
Joanna Hiffernan died on July 3,1886, at 2 Millman Street in Holborn, London. Although she also drew and painted herself, none of her artworks were publicly exhibited and very little evidence of them survives today. As a result, her own artistic talent remains largely hidden behind the masterpieces she helped inspire.