Artwork details · 2026-06-16

The Blind Girl

by John Everett Millais · 1856

The Blind Girl by John Everett Millais

Artist

Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest student to enter the Royal Academy Schools. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded at his family home in London, at 83 Gower Street. Millais became the most famous exponent of the style, his painting Christ in the House of His Parents (1849–50) generating considerable controversy, and he produced a picture that could serve as the embodiment of the historical and naturalist focus of the group, Ophelia, in 1851–1852.

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Artwork

The Blind Girl is an oil on canvas painting by John Everett Millais, from 1856. It depicts two itinerant beggars, presumed to be sisters, one of whom is a blind musician, her concertina on her lap. They are resting by the roadside after a rainstorm, before travelling to the town of Winchelsea, visible in the background.

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Quick facts

Artist
John Everett Millais
Year
1856
Movement
Romanticism
Country
United Kingdom
Location
Birmingham Museums Trust