Elizabeth Barrett Browning

1 portrait by Macaire

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning

by Elliott & Fry, after Macaire
albumen carte-de-visite, mid 1860s (September 1858)
3 1/2 in. x 2 1/4 in. (88 mm x 57 mm) image size
Given by Terence Pepper, 2012
Photographs Collection
NPG x136269

Sitterback to top

Artistsback to top

  • Elliott & Fry (active 1863-1962), Photographers. Artist or producer associated with 10998 portraits.
  • Macaire, Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 1 portrait.

This portraitback to top

This carte-de-visite, featuring her trademark dark ringlets, is based on an engraving by Thomas Oldham Barlow, itself a reproduction of Macaire's full-length photograph, taken September 1858. The engraving formed the frontispiece to her epic 'verse-novel' of female poetic ambition, Aurora Leigh (1856). In the frontispiece, the poet stands next to a desk. In Elliot & Fry’s vignette, Barrett Browning's role as a writer is deemphasised.

Placesback to top

Events of 1858back to top

Current affairs

After Palmerston's government collapses, the Earl of Derby becomes Prime Minister for second time, again heading a minority government.
The Property qualification for MPs is abolished; one of the demands made by the Chartists, this allowed men who did not own property to stand as parliamentary candidates. Lionel Nathan Rothschild becomes the first Jew to sit in Britain's House of Commons, taking his oath on the Old Testament.

Art and science

The pianist Charles Hallé founds a symphony orchestra in Manchester, the Halle; now Britain's oldest professional orchestra. The Hallé symphony rose to prominence in the mid-20th century, under the tenure of conductor John Barbirolli, during which time they made many recordings, including Ralph Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 8.

International

The British Crown assumes control of India from the East India Company.
The Treaty of Tientsin, ending the Second Opium War, gives European powers new rights to intervene in Chinese affairs
The Fenian Brotherhood is founded by John O'Mahony, an Irish emigrant to the United States, to support Irish republican ambitions.

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