Gustave Courbet | Jo, La Belle Irlandaise, 1866

Gustave Courbet | Jo, the Beautiful Irishwoman | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The "beautiful Irishwoman" depicted in this painting is Joanna Hiffernan (born 1842/43), mistress and model of the artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)🎨, and perhaps subsequently Courbet’s lover.

Although dated 1866, the picture was likely undertaken in 1865, when the two men painted together at the French seaside resort of Trouville; Courbet wrote of "the beauty of a superb redhead whose portrait I have begun".

He would paint three repetitions with minor variations. | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gustave Courbet | Self-Portrait known as At the Easel

Gustave Courbet | Jo, the Beautiful Irishwoman| The Bridgeman Art Library

Gustave Courbet | Jo, the Beautiful Irishwoman | Nationalmuseum

Jo, la bella irlandaise" in questo dipinto è Joanna Heffernan. Ha posato per il pittore James Abbott MacNeill Whistler🎨, con il quale ha vissuto. Courbet la conobbe in Normandia nel 1865 e divennero molto amici.

Nel dipinto si tira la mano tra i capelli sciolti e rossi, mentre osserva il suo riflesso nello specchio - un soggetto carico di simbolismo associato a temi come la sensualità provocatoria, la vanità o la transitorietà della bellezza.

Courbet realizzò, fra il 1865-1866, altre tre versioni di questo dipinto oggi situati in vari musei del mondo.

Gustave Courbet | Jo, the Beautiful Irishwoman| Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City