Etchings Institutions search term: dowdeswell
Jo |  New York Public Library (MEZAP) | |
| Number: | 87 | |
| Date: | 1861 | |
| Medium: | drypoint | |
| Size: | 227 x 152 mm | |
| Signed: | 'Whistler.' at lower right | |
| Inscribed: | '1861.' at lower right | |
| Set/Publication: | 'Cancelled Plates', 1879 | |
| No. of States: | 1 | |
| Known impressions: | 25 | |
| Catalogues: | K.77; M.77; T.60; W.64 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (25) | ||
KEYWORD
cancelled plate, hair, head, model, portrait, woman.
TITLE
The name of the sitter, Joanna Hiffernan (b. ca 1843), usually figured in titles, under various spellings:
'Head of a Female' (1874, James Anderson Rose (1819-1890)). 1
'Joe' (1874, Ralph Thomas, Jr (1840-1876)) 2
'"Jo"' (1894, Whistler). 3
'Jo' (1909, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)). 4
'Jo', the shortest version of the nickname, was used by Whistler, and was adopted by Mansfield and later cataloguers.
'Head of a Female' (1874, James Anderson Rose (1819-1890)). 1
'Joe' (1874, Ralph Thomas, Jr (1840-1876)) 2
'"Jo"' (1894, Whistler). 3
'Jo' (1909, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)). 4
'Jo', the shortest version of the nickname, was used by Whistler, and was adopted by Mansfield and later cataloguers.
1: Liverpool 1874 (cat. no. 522).
2: Thomas 1874 (cat. no. 60).
3: Whistler to J. Pennell, [13 March 1894], GUW #07787.
4: Mansfield 1909 (cat. no. 77).
DESCRIPTION
The head and shoulders of a young woman with long wavy hair falling from a central parting. She faces to the front, turned slightly to the left. She wears a high-necked, loose, plain dress or blouse. She is lit from the left, and the background is in shadow.
SITTER
Photograph of Symphony in White, No. I: The White Girl [y038].
Whistler Collection, Glasgow University Library, Special Collections.
Joanna Hiffernan (b. ca 1843). She posed at this time in Paris for an oil painting, Symphony in White, No. I: The White Girl
[y038] (Whistler's photograph of this is reproduced above) - and other drypoints - Jo's Bent Head
[88] and Brushing the Hair
[94].
This is the most close-up, personal and vibrant of Whistler's portraits of Jo. Her long rippling red hair is prominent in another drypoint, Weary
[93]. Whistler delighted in her hair, as he told Fantin Latour:
'C'est des cheveux les plus beaux que tu n'aie jamais vu! d'un rouge non pas doré mais cuivré - comme tout ce qu'on a revé de Venitienne! - une peau blanche jaune ou dorée si tu veux - '
Translated: 'She has the most beautiful hair that you have ever seen! a red not golden but copper - as Venetian as a dream! - skin golden white or yellow if you will -' 5
5: [January/June 1861], GUW #08042.