María Tomasa Palafox, Duchess of Medina Sidonia
1780–1835 · Spanish painter and intellectual, Marchioness of Villafranca
María Tomasa Palafox y Portocarrero (Madrid, 1780 – Naples, 1835) was Marchioness of Villafranca and Duchess of Medina Sidonia. She is remembered as a Spanish painter and intellectual of the Enlightenment era and the period of the War of Independence. Her work as a painter is poorly documented, and few concrete details about her artistic output survive.
The daughter of María Francisca de Sales Portocarrero, Countess of Montijo, she received an education directed by her mother, an enlightened and influential woman. She took part in the Real Sociedad Económica Matritense de Amigos del País, with an interest in pedagogy and scientific progress. In 1805 she was named honorary member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. In 1811 she founded the Sociedad Patriótica de Señoras de Fernando VII in Cádiz.
Between 1818 and 1824 she presided over the Junta de Damas de Honor y Mérito, regarded as the first association of women founded in Spain, made up exclusively of women and still active today. She backed social reform programmes, including women's education and improvements to women's prisons. She published an Elogio a la reina Isabel de Braganza in 1819 and several memoirs on the Junta's work. She was portrayed by José Alonso del Rivero and is believed to have been a muse of Francisco de Goya.