Information
The distant background of this painting shows the village of Winchelsea in Sussex, painted in the autumn of 1854. The two girls in the foreground and the middle ground were added later in Perth in 1855. The models were Matilda Proudfoot as the blind girl and Isabella Nichol as her younger sister. Millais had first used his wife Effie but then replaced her with Matilda. The scene deals with the contemporary social problem of vagrancy, focusing on the predicament of children and the disabled. Tate has a pencil drawing of the younger girl in a standing position.
- Presented by the Rt Hon William Kendrick, 1892.
- © Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Makers
Association |
Artist |
Organisation |
Artist |
John Everett Millais |
- |
Inscriptions
Type |
Position(s) |
Method |
Date(s) |
Notes |
JM |
Monogram |
- |
- |
1856 |
|
|
Exhibitions
Catalogue No. |
Venue |
Date(s) |
The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts: 88th Exhibition |
586 |
Royal Academy, London |
1856-05-05 - 1856-07-26 |
|
Thirty-Third Exhibition |
124 |
Liverpool Academy of Arts |
1857 - 1857 |
|
Thirty-Seventh Exhibition |
15 |
Liverpool Academy of Arts |
1861-09--9 - 1862-01-11 |
|
The Permanent Collection of Paintings, and a Special Loan Collection of Modern Pictures |
189 |
City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery |
1891-10-02 - 1892 |
|
Exhibition of British Art c. 1000-1860 |
568 |
Royal Academy of Arts, London |
1934-01-06 - 1934-03-10 |
|
Twee Eeuwen Engelsche Kunst |
10 |
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam |
1936 - 1936 |
|
Chefs-d'oeuvre de la peinture anglaise: XVIIIe et XIX siecles |
92 |
Palais du Louvre, Paris |
1938-03-04 - 1938-06 |
|
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood |
61 |
City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham |
1947-06-07 - 1947-07-27 |
|
The First Hundred Years of the Royal Academy 1769-1868 |
281 |
Royal Academy of Arts, London |
1951-12-08 - 1952-03-10 |
|
Makers of British Painting 1800-1950 |
57 |
Museum of Modern Art, New York, and US tour |
1956-10-02 - 1957-05-12 |
|
British Art 1700-1960 |
82 |
Pushkin Museum, Moscow |
1960-02 - 1960 |
82 |
Hermitage Museum, Leningrad |
1960 - 1960-08 |
|
Primitives to Picasso: An Exhibition from Municipal and University Collections in Great Britain |
195 |
Royal Academy of Arts, London |
1962-01-06 - 1962-03-07 |
|
Peintures et Aquarelles Anglaises, 1700-1900, du Musée de Birmingham |
- |
Musée des Beaux Arts, Lyon |
1966-10-23 - 1966-11-20 |
|
Millais PRB/ PRA |
51 |
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
1967-01-14 - 1967-03-05 |
51 |
Royal Academy, London |
1967-03-15 - 1967-04-30 |
|
La peinture romantique anglaise et les preraphalites |
184 |
Petit Palais, Paris |
1972-01-21 - 1972-04-16 |
|
The Pre-Raphaelites |
69 |
Tate Gallery, London |
1984-03-07 - 1984-05-28 |
|
Viktorianische Malerei von Turner bis Whistler/ Pintura Victoriana: de Turner a Whistler |
repr. col. 34 |
Neue Pinakothek, Munich |
1993-02-26 - 1993 |
repr. col. 34 |
Museo del Prado, Madrid |
1993 - 1993-07-31 |
|
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England |
38 |
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington |
1995-03-09 - 1995-05-07 |
38 |
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
1995-05-27 - 1995-07-16 |
38 |
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington |
1995-08-11 - 1995-10-15 |
38 |
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas |
1995-11-04 - 1996-01-02 |
38 |
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia |
1996-01-23 - 1996-04-10 |
38 |
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery |
1996-05-25 - 1996-05-25 |
|
The Victorians: British Painting in the Reign of Queen Victoria 1837-1901 |
11 |
National Gallery of Art, Washington |
1997-02-16 - 1997-05-11 |
|
Art Treasures of England: The Regional Collections |
132 |
Royal Academy, London |
1998-01-22 - 1998-04-13 |
|
The Dignity of Humble People: Jean-Francois Millet and Naturalism in Europe |
- |
Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo |
2003-04-10 - 2003-07-13 |
|
Pre-Raphaelite Vision: Truth to Nature |
105 |
Tate Britain, London |
2004-02-14 - 2004 |
105 |
Altes Nationalgalerie, Berlin |
2004 - 2004 |
105 |
Fundacio La Caxia, Madrid |
2004 - 2005-01-09 |
|
Millais |
62 |
Tate Britain, London and tour |
2007-09-26 - 2008-01-13 |
|
Literature
Author(s) |
Date(s) |
Publisher |
Pages |
The Life and Letters of John Everett Millais |
John Guille Millais |
1899; 1900 |
Methuen, London. |
vol. 1, pp. 237, 240-43, 307, 310; vol. 2, pp. 394, 451, 469, 495. |
|
Magazine of Fine Arts |
|
April 1906 |
- |
p. 407. |
|
Pre-Raphaelite Painters |
J Gere, R Ironside |
1948 |
Phaidon, London |
p. 40 repr. pls. 53-54. |
|
English Art 1800-1870 |
T S R Boase |
1959 |
Clarendon Press, Oxford |
pp. 284, 293. |
|
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood |
F M Hueffer |
1907 |
Duckworth, London |
pp.138, 165; repr. p. 111. |
|
Die Zeugenossiche Engliische Malonei |
Robert de la Sizeranne |
1899 |
- |
p. 142. |
|
Millais |
K Roberts |
1967 |
Knowledge Publications, London |
pp. 5-6. |
|
'Victorian Painting and Patronage in Birmingham' |
|
April 1968 |
Apollo. vol. 87 |
pp. 246-47. |
|
Antiques |
|
November 1968 |
- |
p. 752. |
|
The Pre-Raphaelites |
Timothy Hilton |
1970 |
Thames and Hudson, London |
pp. 78 -151. |
|
Die Praffaeliten |
Peter Betthausen |
1989 |
Kunst und Gesellschaft, Berlin |
p. 40. |
|
'L'Art du XIXe Siecle' |
|
1890 |
Editions Citadelle |
p. 531. |
|
Le Symbolisme |
Michael Gibson |
1994 |
Cologne & Bonn |
pp. 66-68; illus. p. 74. |
Provenance
Bought Ernest Gambart, 1856; John Miller of Liverpool by 1857; his sale, Christie's, 21 May 1858 (171); bought Robertson; David Currie by 1861; William Graham; his sale, Christie's, 2 April 1886 (l89), bought Agnew's; Albert Wood by 1891; bought William Kenrich MP, and present by him to Birmingham, 1892. |
Associated people
Related work & resources
Discuss this work
|