Pnina Reichman

Born in Germany, 1947
Lives and works in Tel Aviv

Pnina Reichman chose the model for Gustave Courbet's The Origin of the World - who until recently remained anonymous - as a representative of all those nameless women who served as objects of desire, playing the only role once reserved for women in the art world: models and muses. Twenty-six small scans of The Origin of the World (like the 26 letters of the alphabet) are scattered throughout the exhibition space in an attempt to give voice to the silent figures subjected to the viewer's gaze. The small scale of these images invites the viewer to draw close to them, as if reconstructing a voyeuristic experience; at the same time, however, the letters covering the woman's painted body repel the viewer's invasive presence, coming together to reject the possibility of being accosted by a violent, penetrating gaze.


Joanna "Jo" Hiffernan

1843, Ireland
ca. 1903, place of death unknown

Little is known about Joanna ("Jo") Hiffernan, who was likely the model for Gustave Courbet's renowned painting The Origin of the World. In 1866 Courbet painted the torso of a naked woman with outspread legs, whose head is not included in the composition, and titled this small painting (oil on canvas, 46x55 cm). "The Origin of the World". It was commissioned by Khalil Bey, a Turkish diplomat and the Ottoman Empire's former ambassador in Athens and in St. Petersburg. For many years, this painting was inaccessible to the general public. It is now in the collection of the Musיe d'Orsay in Paris.
In 2010, a French art connoisseur purchased an unsigned oil painting of a woman's head in a Parisian antique shop. He sent the painting to be examined at the Gustave Courbet Institute, where experts determined that the painting was indeed by Courbet, and that it portrayed the head of Joanna Hiffernan. It was identified as the top part of The Origin of the World, which was cropped for reasons that can only be speculated upon.