Portraits of Browning, part 3

Final part of three-part series on the Browning portraits.

Rossetti, William M. "Portraits of Robert Browning, III." Magazine of Art (1890): 261. Web. 21 Sept. 2011.

The final essay in Rossetti's three-part series starts with portraits from 1879. The pattern of the first two essays is repeated: Rossetti describes quantitative features of the portrait, then discusses how well the artistic portrait captures the essence of Browning's characteristics, personality and appearance based on historical and firsthand accounts, plus secondhand description, some from Browning's family.

Rossetti's discussion of some portrait-makers depiction of Browning's facial features develops into a exploration of Browning's ethnicity and in the course of that question, his family lineage is examined.

Two more photographs are also described by Rossetti as part of the portraiture of Browning.

See also part one and part two.

descriptive, interpretive, educational, analytical

"racy entertainment and good humor;" "a dash of the tar-brush;" "alien blood;"

true likeness, fidelity in physical and character representation, valid illustration in images and words

Rudolf Lehman, Dickens, Mr. Barrett Browning, Balliol College, Mr. Sandys, Mr. Cameron, Mr. Grove, Miss Barclay, Major Giles, Mr. M. Wood, Mr. Lance Calkin, Miss Henrietta Montalba, Mr. Moscheles, Mrs. F.W.H. Myers

definitive

descriptive, analytic, explanatory

"The barber in 'Nicholas Nickleby' drew the line at bakers; Browning drew it at after-dinner speaking, and, indeed, at any and every kind of public address;" ". . . a vigorous old age battling undismayed but conscious with the inroads of time."