Drypoint on antique cream laid paper, 1861. 226x152 mm; 8 7/8x6 inches, full margins. MacDonald's third state (of 3). Coat-of-arms with a powder horn watermark (the same watermark is on the impression of this subject in the University of Michigan Museum of Art). A superb, dark, well-inked impression of this very scarce, early print.
According to MacDonald, there are approximately 30 recorded impressions of this subject.
The model is Joanna Hiffernan (born circa 1843), Whistler's red-headed Irish mistress; she was also the sitter for Whistler's famous painting, Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl, 1861, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
Whistler granted Hiffernan power of attorney over his affairs in London while he was in Valparaiso in 1866; she acted as agent for the sale of his works during this period too. The same year, she traveled to Paris to pose for Gustave Courbet's erotically charged Le Sommeil, 1866, now in the Musée du Petit Palais, Paris; it seems likely that Courbet and Hiffernan also had an affair. Consequently, Whistler and Hiffernan parted ways soon after his return from Valparaiso. Kennedy 78; Glasgow 88.
