Identity of Model in Courbet's 'L'Origine du monde' Revealed

The identity of the model for Gustave Courbet's 1866 painting 'L'Origine du monde' has been discovered. French weekly Paris Match published an exclusive investigation claiming the model is Constance Queniaux, a former dancer at the Paris Opera. Literary historian Claude Schopp, a specialist on Alexandre Dumas, made the discovery while working on correspondence between Dumas fils and writer George Sand. In a June 1871 letter, Dumas wrote about 'the interior of Mlle Quéniaux of the Opera,' which Schopp believes refers to the painting's subject. The misspelling 'Queniault' in the transcription was corrected to 'Quéniaux' after consulting the original manuscript. Schopp's findings will be published in a book in early October. The painting was commissioned by Turkish-Egyptian diplomat Khalil-Bey, who was also Queniaux's lover at the time. Previous theories suggested the model was Jo Hiffernan, James Whistler's Irish mistress, or Jeanne de Tourbey, but the new evidence points to Queniaux. The work, now at the Musée d'Orsay since 1995, has long been controversial and was repeatedly censored by Facebook's algorithm.