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Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755–1828)
Josef de Jaudenes y Nebot, 1794
Oil on canvas; 50 3/4 x 39 3/4 in. (128.9 x 101 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Rogers Fund, 1907 (07.75)
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A minor Spanish official who had set his sights on becoming a permanent envoy to the United States, Josef de Jaudenes y Nebot (1764–before 1819) wooed and married the daughter of a commanding figure in Spanish-American relations at the time, Boston merchant John "Don Juan" Stoughton. Jaudenes commissioned the pair of portraits from Stuart to proclaim the union. Stuart seized the opportunity to display his talents for a patron who required the trappings of ceremony and wealth. With a degree of technical resourcefulness and skill still unknown among artists trained in America, he painted elaborate portraits for elaborate sitters, privileging iconography over character in one so arrogant.
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