Matilda Stoughton de Jaudenes y Nebot, 1794
Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755–1828)
Oil on canvas; 50 5/8 x 39 1/2 in. (128.6 x 100.3 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Rogers Fund, 1907 (07.76)

Companion Portrait

Let's look at this portrait of a woman.

What in this painting looks like it would feel soft?

How many pieces of jewelry is this woman wearing?

Where did I repeat the color red?

What visual clues do I give you about this woman’s lifestyle?

(Use the Zoom and Enlarge buttons to get a closer look.)

This is Matilda Stoughton from New York City. Her father was an American ambassador to Spain. Matilda was sixteen when I painted this picture to match the portrait I made of her new husband, the Spanish diplomat Josef de Jaudenes y Nebot. These would be called companion portraits and hung together. I captured her fancy dress, jewelry, and fashionable hat with great detail and exactness. Look at the different brushstrokes I used to create her shiny silk clothes, the feathery ostrich plumes, her soft powdered hair, ruffled lace, and the diamond and pearl jewelry, including her snowflake hairpins. I added a few typical objects that most artists of my time would include in their paintings of women: an ivory fan for femininity and books to show education.

Fun fact

This is the companion portrait I painted of Matilda’s husband, Josef de Jaudenes y Nebot. He hired another artist to add the family coat of arms and its description (written in Spanish), in the upper corners of their portraits.

Can you find any clues in the two paintings to tell you how they would be displayed?