2759. RB to Anna Maria Hall
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 15, 179–180.
Florence,
Dec. 5. ’48–
Dear Mrs Hall–
Certainly I do not “forget you”—knowing better the value of pleasant memories, such evenings as this, when our olive-wood fire burns capitally, & the roast chesnuts & mulled Montepulciano help its comfort. I should be very happy to associate myself with your undertaking, [1] & so would my wife, who for her part, too, “forgets” none of Mr Hall’s bygone kindnesses; [2] but what can we do? Here are we beginning our third year of Tuscan life,—in the palace, to be sure, of the Guidi, patrons of Masaccio, and over the way—acquaintances of the Madonna della Seggiola, [3] but at a woeful distance from Mr Vernon’s gallery, which neither of us ever saw! If he had but laid in a stock of Paolo Uccellos,—the Beato, Memmi, Gaddi & the like, [4] —we were your man & woman! As it is,—how get the second-sight (as I see proofs of it, in the criticisms of people on the above, certainly never gifted with a first sight) without a visit to London—which may, or may not be for us next year– One thing is certain,—that we, both of us, thank you very heartily for your sympathy & kind words—and, with best remembrances to Mr Hall, pray believe me ever,
Yours very faithfully,
Robt Browning.
Address, on integral page: Mrs S. C. Hall, / The Rosery, / Old Brompton.
Publication: NL, pp. 45–47.
Manuscript: Huntington Library.
1. Anna Maria Hall (née Fielding, 1800–81) and her husband Samuel Carter Hall (1800–89) were publishing The Vernon Gallery of British Art, which appeared in parts between 1849 and 1854. The Vernon Gallery consisted of 157 paintings, mainly by English masters, that had been collected by Robert Vernon (1774–1849). He gave this collection to the nation in December 1847. Before doing so, however, he had given permission to S.C. Hall to have the paintings engraved and published (DNB). The Halls apparently intended to accompany the pictures in each issue with poetic descriptions and were asking the Brownings to contribute. While the first two installments, edited by Mrs. Hall, contained verses by Leigh Hunt and Mary Howitt, there were no more accompanying verses with later installments.
2. As editor of The New Monthly Magazine, Hall had accepted two of EBB’s poems for publication: “The Romaunt of Margret” and The Poet’s Vow.” They appeared in the issues of July and October 1836 (see letter 542).
3. This painting by Raphael, which still hangs in the Pitti Palace, is described in Murray’s Hand-Book for Travellers in Northern Italy (1847) as “the sweetest of all his Madonnas, if not the grandest” (p. 560). We have been unable to verify RB’s assertion that the Guidi were patrons of Tommaso Masaccio (1401–28).
4. Taddeo Gaddi (1300?–66), Paolo Uccello (1397–1475), and Fra Angelico (1387–1455), called “il Beato,” were Florentine painters. Lippo Memmi (fl. 1317–47) and his brother Federico Memmi were both from Siena, as was their more famous brother-in-law, Simone Martini (1284?–1344); see Dizionario della pittura e dei pittori (Torino, 1992).
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