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
House of Alba any issue and her titles were inherited by a relative, Carlos Miguel Fitz-James Stuart, 14th Duke of Alba. Thus, the dukedom of Alba passed to the senior branch of the House of FitzJames, which took over the patrimony of the House of Alba. Until 20 November 2014, the head of the House of Alba was Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, 18th Duchess of Alba. She held the Guinness Book of Records title for the largest number of noble titles, with 57 titles. The current head of the House of Alba is Carlos Fitz-James Stuart, 19th Duke of Alba, who succeeded his mother