Robert Browning

This portraitback to top

The date, 1875, has previously been given to this portrait, probably because in the VE catalogue, it was erroneously stated to have been exhibited at the RA in that year. There is no evidence that Watts painted Browning more than once, and in any case this portrait is much closer to Browning's portraits of the 1860s than those of the 1870s, when his face had become much more aged. This must be the portrait referred to by the Athenaeum in 1866:

'Mr G. F. Watts's portraits of Messrs Robert Browning (222) and Alfred Tennyson (223) are in noble companionship, and are noble works. The former delights us as one of the painter's most nearly perfect pictures. A real work of art, there is in this painting all the higher qualities of portraiture.'
The portrait of Tennyson mentioned in this passage is also in the NPG (1015). Browning wrote to Isa Blagden on 26 November 1866 (McAleer, p 251):

'I have just sat to Lawrence [sic] for another - and have to repeat the process - which is tiresome in these quick photographing days - but he is a charming person, as indeed is Watts.'
The portrait of Browning by Samuel Laurence is now at Baylor University, Texas.

Referenceback to top

Art Journal (1866), p 374.

'Catalogue of Works by G. F. Watts', compiled by Mrs M. S. Watts (MS, Watts Gallery, Compton), II, 20.

Chesterton 1900
G. K. Chesterton, 'Literary Portraits of Watts', Bookman, XIX (December 1900), 81.

Chesterton 1904a
G. K. Chesterton, G. F. Watts (1904), p 77.

Chesterton 1904b
G. K. Chesterton, Robert Browning (1904), p 112.

McAleer (ed.) 1951
Dearest Isa: Robert Browning's Letters to Isa Blagden, edited E. C. McAleer (1951), pp 251-2.

Rossetti 1890
W. M. Rossetti, 'Portraits of Robert Browning - I and II', Magazine of Art (1890), pp 246-7.

Spielmann 1886
M. H. Spielmann, 'The Works of G. F. Watts, R.A.', Pall Mall Gazette "Extra" no.22 (1886), p 29.

The Athenaeum (10 November 1866), p 613.

Wilson
G. E. Wilson, Robert Browning's Portraits, Photographs and Other Likenesses and their Makers, edited A.J. Armstrong, Baylor Bulletin, XLVI (December 1943), no. 4, 99-103.

Physical descriptionback to top

Healthy complexion, greyish hair and beard. Dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and black coat. Background colour green.

Provenanceback to top

The artist, presented by him, 1895.

Exhibitionsback to top

French Gallery, London, 1866 (222); London International Exhibition: Fine Arts Department, 1872 (106); Paris, 1878 (according to Mrs Watts); Winter Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, 1882, 'Collection of the Works of G. F. Watts' (101); Worcestershire Exhibition of Fine Arts, 1882 (139) (typescript copy of catalogue, NPG archives); Royal Jubilee Exhibition, Manchester, 1887, 'Fine Arts Section' (504); Whitechapel (St Jude's), 1890 (40); VE, 1892 (213).

Reproductionsback to top

W. M. Rossetti, 'Portraits of Robert Browning - I and II', Magazine of Art (1890), reproduced as an engraving, p 188.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Ormond, Early Victorian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1973, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

View all known portraits for Robert Browning

View all known portraits for George Frederic Watts