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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Do you have any information about this frame? I’m quite curious as to who made it.

Unfortunately, we do not know the name of the craftsman who produced the frame. It is very beautiful.

The arrows in the quiver are almost certainly an allusion to cupid's bow and love, as this portrait was commissioned on the occasion of the sitter's marriage!

It is really gorgeous! Thank you so much for all of your help.

Can you tell me more about her?

Doña María de los Dolores Gutiérrez del Mazo y Pérez, painted here by José Campeche, was born in Spain but moved to Puerto Rico, then a Spanish colony, when she was 15 years old.

At 21 she was married to Don Benito Pérez, and this painting was created to commemorate the occasion. The letters on her desk say the names of both her and her husband, who would later become viceroy of New Granada.

New Granada, at the time, was a large territory that included parts of modern Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela.

Awesome, thanks!

What can you tell me about the painter?

The painter was known as the most gifted and prized portraitist in Puerto Rico at the time. He is known for painting images of the wealthy in their homes especially in San Juan. Campeche was mostly self taught, but also learned from Luis Paret y Alcázar, a Spanish court painter who was exiled to Puerto Rico in the late 1770s.

Are their other works by this artist (Campeche) or other Caribbean artists?

This is our only work on view by Campeche, but Camille Pissarro whose work you can find in Infinite Blue, is from St. Thomas and is of Portuguese descent.

What! Il est français.

Oui, mais il est né en St. Thomas. We also have a number of ancient Caribbean works in the Life, Death, and Transformation on the fifth floor.

Merci!

De rien!

What was a typical compensation like for an artist such as Campeche? Or is it another example of an artist who's work was not valuable until after death?

These were commissioned works so they were certainly valued by the person they were meant for and served as status symbols in the home. We are appreciating it on a different level in this museum context, as both evidence of the artist's skill but also a kind of historical record. As for the kind of compensation Campeche received, we don't have a record of even an approximate amount but it would have been something only elite members of society could afford.

Would an artist like that be considered wealthy while at that time?

That's a great question. He would have definitely been comfortable but not nearly as rich as the people he was paintng.

May I ask why this picture is in the European Art gallery? I only ask because the label says the artist is Puerto Rican.

This painting is included in our European Art gallery because it was created within a purely European painting tradition. The sitter was even born in Europe and wished to be painted as a European.

Art of the colonial Americas can be thought from multiple viewpoints and we try to represent all of them in the way these works are curated in the museum. You'll notice colonial art in the context European, American, and Indigenous art galleries.

Doña María de los Dolores Gutiérrez del Mazo y Pérez

José Campeche

European Art

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 not on view

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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