Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl

The White Girl, painted by James McNeill Whistler, shows a full-length woman standing on a wolfskin, holding a lily, in front of a white curtain. Its nearly monochrome palette of whites and greys is the picture's most striking feature and foreshadows Whistler's interest in treating painting as a harmony of tones, which is why it was later retitled Symphony in White. The model was Joanna Hiffernan, who was also the artist's companion at the time. Whistler began the work in late 1861, intending to show it at the Royal Academy, which rejected it. He later exhibited it in a small London gallery under a title linking it to a popular novel, an association the painter denied. After another rejection from the Paris Salon, it was accepted at the Salon des Refusés of 1863, where it was well received. It has been read as an allegory of innocence and its loss, and the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites is visible in its careful detail. It is an early piece of Whistler's aesthetic program, which defended art for art's sake.

Painter

James McNeill Whistler

Date

1860

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

213 × 108 cm

Museum

Galería Nacional de Arte, Washington, D.C.

Genre

portrait

Depicts

artistic dress

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