José Campeche (Puerto Rican, 1751–1809). <em>Doña María de los Dolores Gutiérrez del Mazo y Pérez</em>, ca. 1796. Oil on canvas, 32 11/16 x 26 in. (83 x 66 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Lilla Brown in memory of her husband, John W. Brown, by exchange, 2012.45 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2012.45_PS6.jpg)

José Campeche (Puerto Rican, 1751–1809). Doña María de los Dolores Gutiérrez del Mazo y Pérez, ca. 1796. Oil on canvas, 32 11/16 x 26 in. (83 x 66 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Lilla Brown in memory of her husband, John W. Brown, by exchange, 2012.45 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2012.45_PS6.jpg)

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Who made the frame?

We don’t know the name of the person who made this elaborate frame. It was added to this painting by the museum because these sculptural elements would have been typical for an elite portrait of the 18th century.

The arrows in the quiver could even allude to Cupid’s bow and arrow, appropriate for a portrait commemorating the sitter’s marriage.

Who was Doña María de los Dolores Gutiérrez del Mazo y Pérez?

Doña María was born in Spain in 1775 and moved to Puerto Rico with her parents when she was 15 because her father, a Sergeant Major in the Spanish Navy, was stationed at San Juan.

This portrait was painted when she was 21 on the occasion of her marriage to Don Benito Pérez. Pérez would go on to become the viceroy of New Granada, a large territory that included parts of modern Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela.

Who was José Campeche?

Campeche was known as the most gifted and prized portraitist in Puerto Rico during his lifetime. He is known for painting images of the wealthy in their homes, especially in San Juan. Campeche's mother was of Spanish descent and his father was an enslaved African who earned his freedom through his own artistic practice. He trained with his father and also learned from Luis Paret y Alcázar, a Spanish court painter who was exiled to Puerto Rico in the late 1770s.

What are the letters on the table?

On those papers you can see the name of Doña María de los Dolore Gutiérrez del Mazo and that of her husband, Don Benito Pérez. This painting was created on the occasion of their marriage.

Doña María de los Dolores Gutiérrez del Mazo y Pérez

José Campeche

European Art

On View: Luce Visible Storage and Study Center, 5th Floor

José Campeche, who was largely self-taught, was Puerto Rico’s celebrated portrait and religious painter. His father was an enslaved Puerto Rican man of African heritage who purchased his freedom after working as a painter and gilder, and his mother was a white Spanish woman. Here, he depicted a Spanish-born member of Puerto Rico’s colonial elite, wearing diamonds and a white muslin chemise dress—then at the height of European fashion. This portrait was made when the sitter was twenty-one, around the time of her marriage to Don Benito Pérez (their names are written on the folded letters on the desk), a fellow Spaniard who would later become viceroy of New Granada, in South America.

ARTIST José Campeche, Puerto Rican, 1751–1809

MEDIUM Oil on canvas

DATES ca. 1796

DIMENSIONS 32 11/16 x 26 in. (83 x 66 cm) frame (frame measured 2022): 45 1/4 × 30 1/4 × 6 1/2 in. (114.9 × 76.8 × 16.5 cm) frame: 43 5/16 x 29 1/2 x 4 1/2 in. (110.1 x 74.9 x 11.4 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS European Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 2012.45

CREDIT LINE Gift of Lilla Brown in memory of her husband, John W. Brown, by exchange

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Luce Visible Storage and Study Center, 5th Floor

CAPTION José Campeche (Puerto Rican, 1751–1809). Doña María de los Dolores Gutiérrez del Mazo y Pérez, ca. 1796. Oil on canvas, 32 11/16 x 26 in. (83 x 66 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Lilla Brown in memory of her husband, John W. Brown, by exchange, 2012.45 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2012.45_PS6.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 2012.45_PS6.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2012

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