Gustave Courbet and James McNeill Whistler fight over Jo, La Belle Irlandaise and then they both lose.

As a woman notorious for her red hair it may surprise you that this painting in which model Joanna Hiffernan’s mane takes up the majority of the composition is not the most famous representation of her curls by Courbet. In fact, the beautiful Jo of Ireland is hardly known for the most well-known of her hairy depictions in which the hair painted isn’t red and you can’t see her head at all … do you get where I’m going with this? No? I’m talking about the pretty, the pristine, the powerful, the most prestigious painting of pubis in the world, L’Origine du monde! More like L’vagine du mound, amirite?

Tasteless, terrible French aside, Hiffernan’s vagina was infamous even before it was discovered that she was (almost definitely) the model for The Origin of the Universe. The quick-witted and gorgeous Irish beauty was the mistress to Whistler for over 6 years during which time she modeled for him and at times managed the sale of his paintings. As an unmarried woman who was willing to model nude she was unsurprisingly considered uncivilized (Victorian speak for hussy) and shunned by Whistler’s family. Boohoo. I guess that left her talking to Whistler’s friends; Oscar Wilde must have been such a bore.

It was through Whistler’s connections that our fair lady met Gustave Courbet thus bringing us this image as well as branding her bush into our retinas forevermore. The short-lived affair between Courbet and Hiffernan resulted in several of his most recognizable pieces. This painting specifically was so well-received that the artist created four copies, one of which he kept for himself until it eventually made its way to the National museum in Stockholm. It was perhaps his ownership of the work that led people to believe it to be the original until 2001 when research proved that corrupt American sugar baron Henry Osborne Havemeyer’s widow Louisine had bequeathed the real deal to the Met upon her death in 1929.

Understandably, Whistler wasn’t too happy to see his beloved mistress penetrated and painted by a man who claimed to be the superior at both… ok, so we only have proof that Courbet said he was a better painter but I’m gonna assume that he mocked Whistler’s lovemaking as well. It would be pretty easy; “Why would she want you, you’re just a Mama’s boy”, “You’re like your beloved peacock, all show and no meat *grabs crotch in suggestive manner*” (I’m obviously really good at dissing people and a super badass, ya’ll better watch out). The affair brought an end to the men’s friendship (surprise!) and an end to the romantic relationship between Hiffernan and Whistler.

Little is known of Hiffernan’s life after she fell off from the two famous painters. Records and letters show that she took in Whistler’s bastard son from another woman, perhaps explaining why he left her money in his will. It is reported that she went to Whistler’s funeral in 1903 and stood for an hour by his coffin, recognizable only by her beautiful curly and now grey-streaked hair.