椅子に座り孤児たちにお菓子を差し出す令嬢の左手薬指には指輪がはめられています。令嬢の背後に老婆を、画面左側に11人の孤児たちをまとめ、よく見ると机の後ろに女中の姿もみえます。14人の群像が描かれているにもかかわらず圧迫感がないのは、老婆の背後の引き戸が開け放たれ、背景に庭の木々を望む構図によるのでしょう。このような画面構成を清方は、当時、丸善で買い求めた西洋美術の複製から学んだと推測されます。孤児院の恵まれない子どもたちに施しを与えるというテーマは、当時流行した深刻小説や家庭小説をヒントにしているのかもしれません。
この頃、清方は挿絵画家として小説の挿絵を多数手がけています。

Orphanage (1902)
color on silk; hanging scroll
186.5 x 116.8 cm
(First exhibited at the 13th Japan Painting Association and 8th Japan Art Institute Joint Competitive Exhibition)

On the right, a young woman seated on a chair is handing out sweets to a group of orphans. She wears a ring on the ring finger of her left hand. The old woman standing behind her has brought together the eleven orphans on the left and, if you look carefully, you can also see the figure of a maid behind the desk. Even though Kiyokata has depicted a group of fourteen people, there is no sense of crowding in the picture, probably because of the composition with its view of the trees in the garden through the open sliding door behind the old woman. Kiyokata probably learnt this style of composition from reproductions of Western art bought at Maruzen (book shop) at the time. The theme of giving charity to less fortunate children in orphanages hints at the popularity of shinkoku shōsetsu (dismal fiction) or katei shōsetsu (family novels) early in the twentieth century. Kiyokata worked as an illustrator, producing illustrations for numerous novels in those days.