Matilda Stoughton de Jaudenes

Gilbert Stuart

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The daughter of a New England merchant, Matilda Stoughton (1778–after 1822) was sixteen years old when Stuart painted this portrait celebrating her marriage in New York to the Spanish official Josef de Jáudenes (07.75). Seated before a loosely painted swath of drapery, she wears a fashionable silk dress and is adorned with pearls, diamonds, and a coronet-shaped headdress. An overt display of wealth, the work signals her newfound status as a Spanish aristocrat and departs from the restrained portrait style preferred by most American patrons of the era. The elaborate coat of arms and Spanish inscription—including Stuart’s signature—were added later by another hand, likely after the couple returned to Spain in 1796.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art