Sainte Rosalie, vierge

The Duke of Orléans, eldest son of King Louis-Philippe, was born in Palermo in 1810, while his family lived in exile in Sicily. When he died after a carriage accident in July 1842, the chapel raised on the spot was given windows of saints linked to the royal family, and Palermo's own patron saint was among them. Rosalie was a Sicilian noblewoman of the 12th century who, the legend says, left the world to live as a hermit in a cave above the city. Ingres paints her barefoot under a pointed double arch, hands pressed together in prayer, her long fair hair hanging loose. Her name is written in Latin on the step at her feet, and in the lower left corner he signed and dated the canvas 1842. The window made from it was painted at Sèvres by the glass painter Béranger.