Reverend Mother Léonie

An inked inscription verso in a period hand identifies the sitter as 'Révérende Mère Léonie, Supérieure des femmes aliénées à Gand,' which I think means she was in charge of an asylum for female mental patients at Ghent in northwest Belgium.

From an album compiled by the Belgian jurist, journalist and prison reformer Edouard Ducpétiaux (1804-1868), who in 1863 convened and presided over the first Catholic Congress, a general assembly of some 3000 Belgian Catholics which met at Malines [Flemish: Mechelen] in northern Belgium between 18 August and 22 August 1863.

Photographed by Roose of Ghent [French: Gand].