Next to the side entrance of the late Gothic church of Saint-Séverin in the Latin Quarter, in the neo-Gothic wooden tripartite altar with Polish inscriptions, one can see the widely known and revered image of the Vilnius Madonna from the chapel at the Gates of Dawn. It was given to the Paris church by the famous prophet of Polish emigration messianism, Andrzej Towiański (1799-1878). The copy of the Marian image was decorated in the upper field with the coats of arms of Poland and Lithuania and the royal crown, and in the lower field with the inscription: "O Lady! Haste to our rescue".

The designer of the altarpiece is unknown. Originally, the painting was located behind the main altar and was moved to its present location after the church was renovated in 1866. Walenty Wańkowicz (1799-1842), active in Vilnius in the 1830s, was strongly influenced there by Andrzej Towiański, whom he portrayed - as well as members of his family. The Paris painting was commissioned by the prophet of the "Divine Cause", probably still in Vilnius, where Wańkowicz lived until 1840. The painter came to Paris later, spent the last year of his life there and died in 1842.

Like few other examples preserved in Paris, Wańkowicz's copy evokes the whole complex of issues and contexts of Polish Romanticism and post-Rising emigration: the importance of Vilnius and ardent Catholicism, the role of Towiański, and indirectly also the person of Adam Mickiewicz, an acquaintance of the painter and founder of the painting. The altar was a meeting place for Towiańskis in the 19th century. "Mickiewicz and Słowacki, Goszczyński and Kajsiewicz, Zaleski and...dozens of others prayed before this painting. They sought strength for their future lives at the Lady 'who shines in the Gate of Dawn'" (Franciszek Ziejka).