Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl
Match for you
Rate 5 more paintings to see how well this one matches your taste.
Where to see it
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
About the painting
Symphony in White, No. 1, also known as The White Girl, is a painting by James McNeill Whistler. The work shows a woman in full figure standing on a wolf skin in front of a beige curtain with a lily in her hand. The colour scheme of the painting is almost entirely white. The model is Joanna Hiffernan, the artist's mistress. Though the painting was originally called The White Girl, Whistler later started calling it Symphony in White, No. 1. By referring to his work in such abstract terms, he intended to emphasize his "art for art's sake" philosophy.
Read more
Whistler created the painting in the winter of 1861–62, though he later returned to it and made alterations. It was rejected both at the Royal Academy and at the Salon in Paris, but eventually accepted at the Salon des Refusés in 1863. This exhibition also featured Édouard Manet's famous Déjeuner sur l'herbe, and together the two works drew much attention. The White Girl shows clearly the influence of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, with whom Whistler had recently come in contact. The painting has been interpreted by later art critics both as an allegory of innocence and its loss, and as a religious allusion to the Virgin Mary.
Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0
Similar works
Whistler's Mother
Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp
David with the Head of Goliath
Judith Slaying Holofernes (Uffizi Gallery)
Death of the Virgin
Judith Beheading Holofernes
Lady Agnew of Lochnaw
Klimt University of Vienna Ceiling Paintings
The Ambassadors
Judith Slaying Holofernes
Portrait of a seated woman
Image: James McNeill Whistler; Wikimedia Commons · public domain