‘Black' Madonna of Notre Dame de Delivrande. Hand colored. Unrecorded.

[Black Madonna]. Notre Dame de Bonne Delivrande. Priez pour nous. Paris: chez V.ve Turgis, rue St. Jacques, No. 16, s.a. [c. 1830s-1840s]. [11.0 x 7.3 cm], [1] f. lithograph with contemporary hand-color. Minor toning, very minor edge wear, colors still fresh and bright.
 
 
Unrecorded hand-colored devotional print depicting the shrine of the renowned “Black Madonna” cult statue known as “Notre-Dame de la Délivrande,” housed at the Basilica of Notre-Dame-de-la-Délivrande in Douvres (Normandy). The small print carries the address of the Veuve Turgis, who was active in Paris at rue St. Jacques no. 16 during the 1830s and 1840s.
 
Considerable attention was clearly given to coloring this print, and so it must be mentioned that the skin of the Madonna and Child here is rendered not in the dark browns of the statue itself, but in a bright pinkish hue (observe the rosy cheeks). The wood statue, which dates from the 16th century, is a replacement for a 3rd-century stone cult statue destroyed during the Wars of Religion. Its dark color was long noted, and the statue was commonly listed with the several other ‘Black Madonnas’ venerated across Europe (A replica of this ‘Black Madonna’ of Douvres was carved for the 1888 founding of the church of Notre-Dame de la Délivrance in Popenguine, Senegal.)
 
The Basilica of Notre-Dame-de-la-Délivrande at Douvres was rebuilt in the Neo-Gothic style in the second half of the 19th century, and so the altar depicted here is now lost. Shown are four worshippers seeking help from the statue, which is set in a niche behind railings and dressed in brightly colored garments. Ex-voto offerings (crutches, arm, leg, shackles, ships) are displayed at the foot of the statue and on adjacent walls. 
 
The images at the top of the print depict the 11th-century rediscovery of the ancient stone statue by a sheep (“Un Mouton découvre l’image de la Ste. Vierge”) and the statue’s subsequent excavation by a certain Baron Baudoin (“Baudoin, B.n de Douvre, fair enlever l’image de Notre Dame”). The third image depicts a certain Captain Charles Férel of le Havre being saved from shipwreck in 1712 by a vision of the statue (“Ch. Férel, Cap. Du Havre, est deliver d’un nofrage en 1712”).
 
 
The print is not located by OCLC or KVK, nor have I encountered it in the literature on Notre-Dame de la Délivrande. Preserved in the Archives du Calvados (no. 17FI/930) is a similar print from the Veuve Turgis, which is larger and includes a fourth ex-voto scene (a girl cured by the Virgin in 1715). Images of any sort depicting this shrine are rare.
 
*E. Laurent, Notre-Dame de la Délivrande (1840); E. Laurent, N.-D. de la Délivrande: Notice historique sur la chapelle (1872); M. Le Tellier & J. Pougheol, Le pèlerinage et la basilique de Notre Dame de la Délivrande.