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
Palacio de los duques de Alba Palacio de los duques de Alba Palacio de Los Duques de Alba is a palace in Piedrahita, province of Ávila, Spain. The palace served as a summer residence for the Dukes of Alba, and currently houses a school. Where once was a medieval castle belonging to the Álvarez de Toledo family, the French architect Jaime Marquet constructed a palace for Fernando de Silva, 12th Duke of Alba between 1755 and 1766. The duke used the palace as a summer residence. His granddaughter María Cayetana de Silva, 13th Duchess of Alba invited to the palace famous visitors such as the painter