Oil paint on canvas
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/james-abbott-mcneill-whistler-598" aria-label="More by James Abbott McNeill Whistler" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">James Abbott McNeill Whistler</a>
Symphony in White 2 Little White Girl
Bequeathed by Arthur Studd 1919
actions: postures and motions
adults
clothing and personal items
contemplation
domestic
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
fan
fine art and design, named works
fireplace
flower
furnishings
heating and lighting
Hiffernan, Joanna
individuals: female
interior - non-specific
interiors
mirror
named individuals
objects
people
plants and flowers
portraits
standing
vase
Velazquez, Diego, painting, ‘Rokeby Venus’
Velazquez, Diego, paintings
vessels and containers
woman
<p>Whistler’s aim was for viewers to appreciate this painting’s design, colour and mood. He did not supply a story to accompany the scene. Artist Joanna Hiffernan, Whistler’s lover, was the model and it was painted at Whistler’s house in Chelsea, London. Whistler’s interest in Japanese design and culture influenced the composition and the selection of objects, such as the fan and porcelain vase. The painting inspired the poet Algernon Swinburne to write ‘Before the Mirror’ and the poem was pasted onto the original frame.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2018</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
29 August 2001 – 25 July 2005
2005-07-25
29 August 2001
2001-08-29
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-08-29
Art and Victorian Society
Collection based display
11 October 2002 – 5 January 2003
2003-01-05
11 October 2002 – 5 January 2003
2003-01-05
2002-10-11
Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, USA)
2002-10-11
Whistler Sargent and Steer - Frist
Tate partnerships & programmes
22 April 2003 – 13 July 2003
2003-07-13
22 April 2003 – 13 July 2003
2003-07-13
2003-04-22
Frick Collection (New York, USA)
http://www.frick.org
2003-04-22
Whistler, Women and Fashion
Loan-out
19 December 2005 – 13 November 2006
2006-11-13
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-12-19
J. A. M. Whistler
Collection based display
6 December 2006 – 4 June 2007
2007-06-04
6 December 2006 – 15 February 2007
2007-02-15
2006-12-06
State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow, Russia)
State Russian Museum (St Petersburg, Russia)
http://www.rusmuseum.ru
2006-12-06
Whistler: Russian Suite
Loan-out
28 September 2007 – 13 January 2008
2008-01-13
28 September 2007 – 13 January 2008
2008-01-13
2007-09-28
Lady Lever Art Gallery (Port Sunlight, UK)
2007-09-28
Reciprocal loan "Millais"
Loan-out
1 October 2007 – 31 May 2008
2008-05-31
1 October 2007 – 31 May 2008
2008-05-31
2007-10-01
Lady Lever Art Gallery (Port Sunlight, UK)
2007-10-01
Reciprocal loan for Millais
Loan-out
1 May 2009 – 2 December 2010
2010-12-02
1 May 2009 – 2 December 2010
2010-12-02
2009-05-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-05-01
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Collection based display
2 April 2011 – 17 June 2012
2012-06-17
2 April 2011 – 17 July 2011
2011-07-17
2011-04-02
Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK)
http://www.vam.ac.uk
12 September 2011 – 15 January 2012
2012-01-15
2011-09-12
Musée d’Orsay (Paris, France)
18 February 2012 – 17 June 2012
2012-06-17
2012-02-18
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum (San Francisco, USA)
http://www.famsf.org
2011-04-02
The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900
Loan-out
16 October 2013 – 1 March 2015
2015-03-01
16 October 2013 – 12 January 2014
2014-01-12
2013-10-16
Dulwich Picture Gallery (London, UK)
1 February 2014 – 13 April 2014
2014-04-13
2014-02-01
Addison Gallery of American Art (Andover, USA)
2 May 2014 – 17 August 2014
2014-08-17
2014-05-02
Freer Gallery of Art (Washington, USA)
13 September 2014 – 16 November 2014
2014-11-16
2014-09-13
National Museum of Modern Art (Kyoto, Japan)
6 December 2014 – 1 March 2015
2015-03-01
2014-12-06
Yokohama Museum of Art (Yokohama, Japan)
2013-10-16
Whistler's Bridge
Loan-out
13 September 2014 – 1 March 2015
2015-03-01
13 September 2014 – 16 November 2014
2014-11-16
2014-09-13
National Museum of Modern Art (Kyoto, Japan)
6 December 2014 – 1 March 2015
2015-03-01
2014-12-06
Yokohama Museum of Art (Yokohama, Japan)
2014-09-13
James McN. Whistler Retrospective
Loan-out
26 October 2017 – 5 February 2018
2018-02-05
26 October 2017 – 5 February 2018
2018-02-05
2017-10-26
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon, Portugal)
http://www.museu.gulbenkian.pt/
2017-10-26
William Blake: The Artist
Loan-out
23 February 2022 – 10 October 2022
2022-10-10
23 February 2022 – 22 May 2022
2022-05-22
2022-02-23
Royal Academy of Arts (London, UK)
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk
3 July 2022 – 10 October 2022
2022-10-10
2022-07-03
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
2022-02-23
The Woman in White: James McNeill Whistler, Gustave Courbet and Joanna Hiffernan
Loan-out
24 May 2024 – 24 September 2024
2024-09-24
24 May 2024 – 22 September 2024
2024-09-22
2024-05-24
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen (Rouen, France)
2024-05-24
Whistler and Europe: the butterfly effect
Loan-out
Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl
support: 765 × 511 mm
frame: 1085 × 830 × 118 mm
Bequeathed by Arthur Studd 1919
<p>This picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1865 as 'The Little White Girl'.  It shows a young woman, dressed in white, leaning against a mantelpiece and gazing dreamily into a mirror. She is captured in a moment of deep contemplation.  Her face is reflected in the mirror and silhouetted against a seascape, reinforcing the dream-like atmosphere.  The reflected image is sad and careworn, and one is tempted to draw some kind of link with the wedding ring so prominently displayed on her left hand. Whistler may also have intended to evoke Velasquez's <i>Rokeby Venus</i> (National Gallery, London), where the reflection of the woman's face is similarly at odds with her own idealised image.

</p><p>The poet Swinburne was so inspired by Whistler's picture that he composed a verse ballad, <i>Before the Mirror</i>, in response. It was intended to complement, rather than explain the picture:

</p><p></p><blockquote>
<p>Glad, but not flushed with gladness,<br/>Since joys go by;<br/>Sad, but not bent with sadness,<br/>Since sorrows die;<br/>Deep in the gleaming glass<br/>She sees all past things pass,<br/>And all sweet life that was lie down and lie.<br/>(Algernon Swinburne, <i>Poems and Ballads</i>, London 1866)<br/></p></blockquote>
<p>Whistler was delighted with the poem and had it printed on gold <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> and pasted onto the frame. In this way he hoped to reinforce the picture's theme of reverie and regret.

</p><p>The model for the picture was Whistler's mistress, Jo Hiffernan, and the location the house that they shared in Lindsey Row, Chelsea. She is holding a Japanese fan of the type made for the European market. Whistler was fascinated by Japanese art and culture and collected Japanese objects from an early date. The fan, the red pot and blue and white vase on the mantelpiece, and the spray of pink azalea not only give the picture a Japanese feel, they provide brilliant colour notes against the neutral background of black, white and cream. Pictures hanging in the room are reflected in the mirror, their frames creating a series of right angles which are echoed by the fireplace and the mirror itself, dividing and compartmentalising the picture like a Japanese <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>print</span></a>.

</p><p>In 1887 Whistler exhibited <i>Symphony in White No.3</i> (Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham).  <i>The Little White Girl</i> was accordingly given the additional title of  <i>Symphony in White, No.2</i>, in order to underline the importance of reading the picture as an arrangement of colours, and interpreting the mood rather the subject of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a>. Correspondingly, the first picture in the series, <i>The White Girl</i> (1862 National Gallery of Art, Washington) became known as <i>Symphony in White, No.1</i>.

</p><p><b>Further reading:<br/></b>Richard Dorment and Margaret F. MacDonald, <i>James McNeill Whistler</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1994, pp.78-80, no.15, reproduced in colour p.79.<br/>Andrew Wilton and Robert Upstone (eds), <i>The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones &amp; Watts: Symbolism in Britain 1860-1910</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp.116-7, no.15, reproduced in colour p.116.<br/>Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer with the assistance of Hamish Miles, <i>The Paintings of James MacNeill Whistler</i>, New Haven and London, 1980, no.52, reproduced in colour plate 31.

</p><p>Frances Fowle<br/>October 2000</p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>Whistler’s aim was for viewers to appreciate this painting’s design, colour and mood. He did not supply a story to accompany the scene. Artist Joanna Hiffernan, Whistler’s lover, was the model and it was painted at Whistler’s house in Chelsea, London. Whistler’s interest in Japanese design and culture influenced the composition and the selection of objects, such as the fan and porcelain vase. The painting inspired the poet Algernon Swinburne to write ‘Before the Mirror’ and the poem was pasted onto the original frame. </p>
</div>

Display caption
2018-08-03T00:00:00
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DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: postures and motions adults clothing and personal items contemplation domestic emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas fan fine art and design, named works fireplace flower furnishings heating and lighting Hiffernan, Joanna individuals: female interior - non-specific interiors mirror named individuals objects people plants and flowers portraits standing vase Velazquez, Diego, painting, ‘Rokeby Venus’ Velazquez, Diego, paintings vessels and containers woman