In this painting, Antoine-Jean Gros illustrates the embarkation of the Duchess of Angloulême, daughter of Louis XVI, also known as Madame Royale.
After having organised a tenacious resistance to the return of Napoleon during the Hundred Days in 1815, she was eventually forced to leave Bordeaux and take refuge in England, then in Ghent, Belgium, with her uncle Louis XVIII.
The painter depicts here the duchess saying her farewells and offering her white panache and ribbons to the loyal crowd of gatherers. The weeping women embrace each other with desperation in their eyes, contributing to highlighting the pathetic figure and bringing a theatrical feel to the overall scene. The heavy sky echoes the atmosphere of the crowd and gives the image a romantic dimension which was very modern for the time. Louis XVIII gave this painting to the town of Bordeaux as acknowledgement of its loyalty to the monarchy and the Bourbons.