Duchesse d'Aiguillon, ca. 1650-1660
Engraver: Leblond, Jean (ca. 1590/94-1666)
Medium: engraving on paper
Dimensions: 43.4 x 31.4 cm (sheet)

Marie-Madeleine de Vignerot (1604-1675) was the niece of the powerful Cardinal Richelieu who secured for her the title of Duchesse d'Aiguillon in 1638. She helped to finance the establishment of Hôtel-Dieu hospital at Quebec City in 1639, and to bring nuns to minister to the sick of the French colony.

The print presents her not as a pious benefactor, but as a great beauty, astride a spirited horse. Equestrian portraiture, usually reserved for eminent men, is used here to signify her position of power and her personal independence. The poem which appears at the bottom of the print is addressed from the engraver and speaks of her great physical beauty and inner purity.

National Archives of Canada, negative no. C-118168