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
Peter Toms (painter) Peter Toms (painter) Peter Toms RA (fl. 1748, died 1 January 1777) was an English painter, specialising in depicting drapery for the works of other artists. He was a foundation member of the Royal Academy. Toms was the son of an engraver, William Henry Toms, of Masham Street, Westminster. Apprenticed to the portraitist Thomas Hudson, he became a drapery-painter, and worked for Francis Cotes for several years. After Cotes' death, he was employed by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Benjamin West and John Zoffany amongst others. He also held the post of Port Culis Pursuivant. at the College of Heralds. According to