1794 Matilda in silks, diamonds, pearls, & snowflake piochas (hairpins) |
THE WORLD OF SAMUEL MEEKER, MERCHANT OF PHILADELPHIA, AND GILBERT STUART, AMERICAN PORTRAIT ARTIST
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Monthly pick: Matilda Stoughton [de Jaudenes y Nebot] has big dreams and marries a minor Spanish attaché; the portrait by Gilbert Stuart
Marrying the Spanish Consul’s daughter
allowed Josef de Jaudenes y Nebot to stay in the United States where he surely
happily envisioned being able to stay as a permanently ensconced envoy of Spain
(like his father-in-law). But by 1796,
charged with corruption, he was sent back home where he returned to his family’s
ancestral estate, a vineyard near Palma, Majorca. Matilda had surely imagined a more illustrious outcome of the
marriage. But at least the two had
their Stuart portraits which were commissioned for the occasion of their
wedding. Which is why the two are
remembered today.
FROM LAWRENCE
PARK
Louisa
Carolina Matilda Stoughton was the second daughter of Don Juan (John) Stoughton
who, for thirty years previous to his death in 1820 in his 76th
year, was the Spanish Consul in Boston.
He was prominent in the establishment of the first Roman Catholic
Cathedral in the United States, erected in Boston. Esther Fletcher, whose death
in 1789 is noticed in a contemporary Boston newspaper, and who was the mother
of his daughter Louisa, was either Stoughton’s first or second wife. Louisa Carolina Matilda was well known in
Boston, in her youth, for her beauty.
In 1794 she married Don Josef de Jaudenes y Nebot.
New York,
1794. ....Her dress is of white flowered silk, finished at the neck with a
dainty fichu edged with lace. Her
luxuriant hair is powdered and a coronet-shaped headdress with two tall
feathers is set on top of her head in the center. Nestling in her hair, at the base of the headdress, are clusters
of jewels. Jewels are in her ears,
around her neck, on her dress, and at her wrists. By her side is a table, with a red velevet cover, on which are
two leather-bound books, one open as though she had been reading. Her hands are in her lap and she holds a
closed fan. A brownish-pink curtain is
draped in the background, showing clouds and a sky of blue and pink at the
right. In the upper left-hand corner under a coat of arms is the following
inscription: “Dona Matilde Stoughton de Jaudenes-Esposa de Don Josef de
Jaudenes y Nebot Comisario Ordenador de Los Reales Exercitos de Su Magestad Catholica
y su Ministro Embiado cerca de los Estados Unidos de America. Nacio en la Ciudad de Nueva-York en los Estados Unidos el 11 de Enero de
1778.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(From the Met book Gilbert Stuart [from Albert Ten Eyck Gardner, “Fragment of a Lost Monument,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s.6 March 1948, p 190] p 125),
Next; Josef's portrait.
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5 comments:
Josef must have had especially "great prospects" for Matilda to overlook his "slippery" and "cruel" nature. She should have married for love. There's no guarantee that love won't disappoint either, but at least if it does you end up with a lot of great memories.
StimmeDesHerzens, my friend-- I find that I have to re-route your response to my comment back here, because readers of my blog who read your response didn't understand the larger context; some thought I was secretly wooing some woman named Matilda and that one of Matilda's friends was now accusing me of hiding my slippery, cruel characteristics!
I did not want to delete your comment, so I have just transplanted it back here, in more fertile soil. Your comment was:
Come now David, it must be human nature to hide such characteristics (slippery, cruel), particularly in the wooing stage! & Matilda may have been considered a 'beauty' in her day, but her portrait to my mind doesn't quite reflect it. Josef, who you will see soon (stay tuned), was/must have been ...a LADIES MAN !! Slender, fine-featured, dimple on the chin...how glorious he is in his uniform! It is no wonder that Matilda was swept up into his arms...it is entirely possible that she married for love. (Those outfits and 'snowflake' jewels would have provided some good memories when they were sent back to the countryside...)
:-)gB
And now here is my response:
Ah, I see-- for a woman, it must be love if the man looks "glorious in his uniform" and has a "dimple on his chin." What better indicator of true love could there possibly be?
That's just what I always suspected.
My deepest apologies if I confused your readers about who was in love with whom! The rerouting is completely understandable, and correct since we are talking about the de Jaudenes y Nebot couple. Of course NO ONE could possibly suspect you of being slippery and cruel!
So now you have the answer David, which in fact you knew all along. All it takes is a glorious costume and a dimple...but I suspect it goes both ways.........
You're not suggesting that the male of the species can have his head turned by superficial appearances, are you?
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