4231. RB to Sophia Eckley
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 209–210.
Le Hâvre,
Aug. 19. ’58.
My dear Mrs Eckley,
I thought I should have succeeded in recovering from the Office at Paris that letter which I am so vexed to lose: but as nothing comes in reply to my application, I will write now and thank you affectionately for this last note. I am happy that your kindest of kindhearted husbands loses none of the pleasure he promised himself in giving you this particular pleasure: I thought it was best to do what could be done at once, rather than wait and risk disappointment: the portrait is not perfect, certainly; [1] the nose seems over long, and there are some other errors in the face; also, the whole figure gives the idea of a larger woman than Ba: but the artist himself was so fully aware that much was yet wanting to his work, and not a little remaining to be comprised in it, that I wonder he allowed you to come into possession at once: when the accessories, (chair & table) are added, the main figure will be reduced to its proper proportion—and at our return Ba will sit to his heart’s content: but I am glad to believe, with you, that something, indeed much has been secured—and most glad, as I said, that it gives you the pleasure it should. I know, if we had, in this Hâvre, a portrait of you, equally true to our recollections, we should look many a long look at it, and say many a sincere thing. Dear Mrs Eckley,—what you say about its “final destination” is meant as only you mean such kindness—and I shall not be hindering any kindness of yours,—only diverting it into its more fitting channel, when I pray you to let it be otherwise than so: without referring to eventualities which are in the hand of God, let your own dear child keep one day what may remind him of a face he will have forgotten—and let it remain in America. I do not care to write much about this—but,—let it be so! [2]
We shall not be so very long, now, before we return: my wife has written and, no doubt, made you acquainted with our daily ways: you know my father and sister are here, two of my wife’s brothers, her sister and a new brother’s wife: and I have a friend that striketh closer than a brother,—my friend Milsand. Ba has been a little disturbed in her progressing health by so many faces and voices—but the tumult will subside.
God bless you, dear Mrs. Eckley—together with your husband, child, and Mother. My love goes to them all.
Yours ever affectionately
Robert Browning
Publication: NL, pp. 108–110.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. The one painted by Michele Gordigiani.
2. In spite of RB’s protest here, Mrs. Eckley later bequeathed Gordigiani’s portraits of EBB and RB to Pen (see vol. 24, p. 251).
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