L'Origine du monde

L’Origine du monde (The Origin of the World) is an oil on canvas painted by French artist Gustave Courbet in 1866. It is a close-up view of the genitals and abdomen of a naked 
woman, lying on a bed with legs spread. The framing of the nude body, with head, arms and lower legs outside of view, emphasizes the eroticism of the work.

Identity of the model

At the time the painting was done, Courbet’s favourite model was a young woman, Joanna Hiffernan, also known as Jo. Her lover at the time was James Whistler, the American painter and disciple of Courbet.

Courbet did another painting in 1866, La belle Irlandaise (Portrait of Jo), whose model was Joanna Hiffernan. During his whole career, Courbet did four portraits of Hiffernan. She was probably the model for L’Origine du monde, which might explain Courbet’s and Whistler's brutal separation a short while later. Whistler then returned to the United States, leaving a will in favour of Hiffernan. In spite of Hiffernan’s red hair contrasting with the darker pubic hair of L’Origine du monde, the hypothesis that Hiffernan was the model for it prevails.

Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl by James Whistler, another painting ofJoanna Hiffernan.

In her novel J’étais l’origine du monde (I was the Origin of the world), published in 2000, French writer Christine Orban takes sides, imagining how the narrator, Joanna Hiffernan, was Courbet’s lover and the model for the famous painting. Bernard Teyssèdre, in Le roman de l’origine (The Novel of the Origin, 1996), whose main character is the painting itself, had already suggested that Joanna Hiffernan was the model.


Wikipedia