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

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<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>

Orphans.

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