This was described by the artist as a ‘pot-boiler’ and shows ‘a girl going to school in a smiling summer Sunday morning, singing her hymn as she walks along’. The model was Miriam Wilkinson, a labourer’s daughter Hunt met while staying with Thomas Combe at a farmhouse near Hastings in 1858. The painting was completed in October 1859 and bought immediately by Combe.

Provenance: Bequeathed by Mrs Thomas Combe, 1893

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Material: Oil on panel
Artist: William Holman Hunt (1827-1910)
Date: 1859

Image Details
Date: 27 March 2025
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/33s
ISO: 320
Licensing: Image of an Ashmolean Museum asset. This image cannot be licensed.