Orphan girls entering the refectory of a hospital. Oil painting by Frederick Cayley Robinson, 1915.

item

Galleries and Reading Room

Café

Shop

Library

Our galleries are quietest on weekdays and weekend mornings. At busy times, particularly on Saturdays, you may need to queue for our temporary exhibitions.

We’re undertaking some research with website visitors to learn more about how people find access-related information provided by museums. This survey shouldn't take longer than 10 minutes to complete. Thank you for your time!

Help us organize our website content.

<p>The painting shows the historic role of the hospital in bringing up and sustaining orphans and other needy people of all kinds. The Foundling Hospital established in London in 1739 is an example of a hospital that fulfilled that role. Much earlier, Domenico di Bartolo's frescoes in Siena had included a scene of the reception, bringing up, and marriage of girls entrusted to the hospital of that city.  In the present painting the uniformed girls enter the refectory through an arched staircase on the left that Cayley Robinson derived from Edward Burne-Jones's painting The golden stairs (1876-1880: Tate Britain): the serpentine line which it initiates continues in the next painting in the pair.</p>

Wellcome uses cookies.

Orphans.

Licence and re-use