''The Black Duchess'' (also ''Mourning Portrait of the Duchess of Alba'' or simply ''Portrait of the Duchess of Alba'') is a 1797
oil-on-canvas
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...
painting by Spanish painter
Francisco Goya
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and ...
. The Duchess in the painting is
María Cayetana de Silva, 13th Duchess of Alba, then 35 years old. It is a companion piece to the more chaste ''
The White Duchess
''The White Duchess'' is a life sized (192 x 128 cm) oil-on-canvas painting by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya, completed in 1795 and now in the collection of the House of Alba, in the Liria Palace, in Madrid. It portrays María Cayetana d ...
'', completed two years earlier. In this work, de Silva is dressed in low cut ''Maja'' clothing. She probably agreed to this depiction in that it might show her as a "woman of the people".
[Hughes, 161]
, the painting has been kept at the New York Hispanic Society, operated by the
Hispanic Society of America.
About
The ''Portrait of the Duchess of Alba'' was painted in 1797 by Spanish painter
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and ...
. The work is kept at the New York Hispanic Society, owned and operated by the
Hispanic Society of America.
In the painting, the duchess (
María Cayetana de Silva, 13th Duchess of Alba ) is thirty-five years old, and her husband had died the year before, so she is dressed in
mourning clothes (attire). In the painting, she is pointing to the ground, where the words "solo Goya" are lightly engraved. She is wearing two rings, one engraved with the word "Alba", the other engraved with "Goya". The inscription of the word "solo" was initially hidden, but after the painting was restored the word was revealed.
This work is among a number Goya painted of the duchess.
When she retreated to a residence after her husband died a year earlier
for a period of mourning, Goya followed and created numerous paintings and sketches of the duchess during her stay.
One day, the duchess walked into Goya's studio and requested that he put on the duchess' makeup, then create a painting for her, which he did. This painting is the ''Portrait of the Duchess of Alba'', painted at her request.
See also
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List of works by Francisco Goya
Notes
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Duchess
1797 paintings
Paintings by Francisco Goya
Portraits of women