Focus on this artwork and explore the abstract.
The White Duchess is a life sized (192 x 128 cm) oil-on-canvas painting by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya, completed in 1795. It portrays María Cayetana de Silva, 13th Duchess of Alba. It is in the collection of the House of Alba, in the Liria Palace, Madrid. 
It is one of a number of portraits Goya painted of the duchess around this time, and is usually compared alongside the similarly sized but tonally very different Black Duchess, which was painted two years later, just after her husband, José Álvarez de Toledo died aged 39. The duke and duchess were highly placed, cultivated and well-regarded members of the 1790s Spanish Court.The commission is first mentioned in a letter dated August 2, 1794, written to his friend Martín Zapater, which mentions that Goya that had been asked to paint life-sized portraits of the duke and duchess of Alba.
Francisco Goya Black Duchess Liria Palace María Cayetana de Silva, 13th Duchess of Alba House of Alba Spanish Martín Zapater José Álvarez de Toledo