The painting shows a blind man with a shell on his hat indicating (or purporting to indicate) that he is a pilgrim to the shrine of Saint James of Compostela. He is holding the left wrist of a young woman, to heal by touch. A woman in the centre is holding a glass bottle which is probably a urine flask. An inscription in French on the painting says that the healer's name is 'Master Robert', that he is a seventh son, and that he therefore has a natural gift of healing various illnesses by laying-on of hands. The painting was bought in Marseilles in 1914.