![]() ![]() Joanna Hiffernan had a sister called Bridget Agnes Hiffernan, later Singleton. The Pennells also described him as "a teacher of polite chirography ( calligraphy)" who used to speak of Whistler as "me son-in-law." Her mother died in 1862, aged 44. Her father, Patrick Hiffernan, was described by Whistler's friends, Joseph Pennell and his wife Elizabeth, as being like "Captain Costigan," the drunken Irishman in Thackeray's novel Pendennis. ![]() The spelling errors in her surviving letters reveal she received a modest education. She and her family may have left Ireland for London during the Great Famine of 1845 to 1848, taking up residence at 69 Newman Street. Hiffernan was a Roman Catholic, born in Limerick in Ireland in 1843 to Anne née Hickey and Patrick Hiffernan. In addition to being an artists' model, Hiffernan herself also drew and painted, although it is not believed she ever exhibited her work. Joanna Hiffernan (1843 – 1886) or Joanna Heffernan was an Irish artists' model and muse who was romantically linked with American painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler and French painter Gustave Courbet. Hiffernan is the subject of this portrait. 1: The White Girl (1862), National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. ![]() ![]() James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Symphony in White, No. ![]()
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