AN UNSUNG MUSE
Joanna Hiffernan. You may not know her by name,
but you would recognize her. Her image hangs on the walls of major museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art. And the features that made her a muse and collaborator to several great 19th-century artists also make her an unforgettable subject. Her loose, wild red hair, fair complexion, elegant profile and intellect provided an aesthetic and human inspiration to painters—and her presence likewise radiates out toward the viewer. In works for which she posed, it is Hiffernan who lends emotional gravity, poise and specificity. But, as is the age-old story with models and muses, though her image has been distributed for the last century and a half, Hiffernan’s life, story and role have faded from public consciousness over the decades.
Now, Hiffernan is the subject of a major exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., “The Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan and James McNeill Whistler”. In collaboration with the Royal Academy of Arts in
