Jo and Whistler moved back in London in early 1862 but were in Paris again in March-May 1864. Fleming suggests that Jo had become pregnant and that during this trip her newborn child was given up for adoption in France.
Jo and Whistler met the French painter Gustave Courbet In the seaside resort of Trouville in the autumn of 1865. Courbet became captivated by Hiffernan, and she quickly agreed to pose for him, resulting in Portrait de Jo, la belle Irlandaise. Jo called on Courbet in Paris in 1866, at a time when Whistler had left Europe for Chile (possibly to avoid a possible round up of Fenian sympathizers, for Whistler was a friend of John O’Leary). She turned up at Courbet’s studio at 32, rue Hautefeuille (6th arrondissement, address no longer exists) for the first time in August 1866 and probably started an affair with him. Courbet spent much of his time at the Brasserie Andler at 24, rue Hautefeuille (address no longer exists), and no doubt Jo was dragged along there during her short stay. Jo was one of the two women in sapphic pose that Courbet portrayed in Le Sommeil before offering her anatomy for the famous L’Origine du Monde (not a painting for the faint-hearted). Not surprisingly perhaps, Jo’s relationship with Whistler broke down after they both met again in London. Remarkably, however, another product of Whistler’s moral waywardness, a son called Charles James Hanson (apparently born of another woman) was later brought up by Jo. According to French writer Christine Orban, Jo ended up as a “respectable antique dealer in Aix-en-Provence” and she was still alive in 1903 when she attended Whistler’s funeral in London. Joanna Hiffernan James Abbot McNeil Whistler: Beyond the Myth (1994) Ronald Anderson & Anne Koval James Abbot McNeill Whistler: A Life (1991) G.H. Fleming Courbet (1995) Bruno Foucart Whistler in His Time (1994) Anne Koval J’étais l’origine du monde (2002) Christine Orban L’origine du monde: histoire d’un tableau (2006) Thierry Savatier Whistler: A Biography (1974) Stanley Weintraub |
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