René Dudot (active In Paris And Rouen Between 1640 And 1659), Virgin In Prayer

René Dudot was a painter active in Paris and then Rouen between 1640 and 1659.
He received numerous commissions from religious communities for their convents and churches (the Cordeliers Church and Saint-Patrice Church in Rouen, and the Saint-Georges Abbey in Saint-Martin-de-Boscherville). Besides commissions for altarpieces, he distinguished himself extensively in devotional painting for private clients, creating several Virgin and Child and Holy Family paintings now held in museums and private collections.
One of his best-known paintings is The Holy Family Resting on the Flight into Egypt, oil on canvas, 227 cm x 137 cm, Rouen, musée des beaux-arts, commissioned for the Cordeliers Church in Rouen between 1653 and 1659.

Here, the delicate face of this Virgin with her downcast eyes is reminiscent of that in Charity at the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, University of Texas.
The painting is on an oval oak panel and is in its original mid-17th-century frame.
Since its creation, this painting had been kept in the collections of a religious community in Rouen.