Saint Louis visitant les pestiférés

This painting depicts Saint Louis visiting plague-stricken sufferers. Louis IX, King of France in the 13th century, remained in historical memory as an exemplary Christian ruler associated with justice, charity, and the Crusades. The scene emphasizes the ideal of a pious and charitable king coming to aid the sick and the destitute. It belongs to the 19th-century tradition of history painting, which sought to exalt the great moral figures of the French medieval past.