The Woman in White (detail)
(Picture: Handout)The Royal Academy’s newest exhibition revolves around one picture: James MacNeill Whistler’s famous portrait of 1862, which failed successively to be exhibited at the RA and the Paris Salon, but did get included in the celebrated Salon de Refusés. It was actually entitled the White Girl, later to become Symphony in White – there would be three of those.
Here it’s called The Woman in White, and the exhibition’s subtitle is the name of the model, Jo Hiffernan – more probably Heffernan, since the unusual spelling derives from ambiguous writing on a baptismal certificate and the latter version is the norm in Ireland – and this exhibition sets out to give an account of their relationship, and of her.
