The White Duchess 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 Duchess of Alba, Madrid. It portrays María Cayetana de Silva, 13th Duchess of Alba, and is one of a number of portraits Goya painted of her 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
James Roberts (painter) was the reason her father agreed to sit for Roberts, that the result was uncharacteristic, and that the book shown was a novel. Roberts was also a scene painter at Blenheim Palace, in 1788 and 1789. In 1789 he was designer for "The Maid of the Oaks", and "False Appearances". a translation by Henry Seymour Conway of "Trompeurs Dehors" by Louis de Boissy. By 1795, Roberts had an appointment as portrait painter to the Duke of Clarence. He exhibited again annually at the Royal Academy from 1795 to 1799. The National Portrait Gallery, London holds 52 portraits by Roberts or