Two travelling beggar girls rest by the roadside after a storm, with the town of Winchelsea behind them. The elder, blind, holds a concertina and feels the sun on her face and a blade of grass under her fingers, while her sister turns to look at a double rainbow. Millais builds the picture around what one can see and the other cannot.
Look closer
A tortoiseshell butterfly rests on the blind girl's shawl. Millais first painted both rainbows with their colours in the same order, then corrected the outer one.
Looks like this
Compared by a vision model
