4771. RB to Ford Madox Brown
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 28, 208.
Florence,
Nov. 1. ’60.
My dear Brown, [1]
Thank you most heartily for your photograph—how good of you to remember me & give me such a precious proof of your remembrance! I see how you have worked at what I consider an original performance, so much of your own hand do I fancy that I find in it. [2] Only one thing is wanting, & one I am going to supply—a glass in front,—I shall then hang it where I can see it & think of you and the fine pictures you have made & will make, I hope. Take my wife’s true thanks along with mine—(we shall both of us see you next year probably)—& continue to keep me in mind as Gratefully & faithfully yours
Robert Browning.
Publication: William Michael Rossetti, Ruskin: Rossetti: Preraphaelitism; Papers 1854 to 1862 (London, 1899), pp. 254–255.
Manuscript: University of British Columbia.
1. Ford Madox Brown (1821–93), painter and friend of the Pre-Raphaelites (see letter 4259, note 9).
2. In a headnote to this letter in the previous publication, W.M. Rossetti suggests: “The photograph sent by Brown might seem to be his own portrait taken from life: but I consider that in reality it was a photograph from Brown’s Last of England [1855], in which the principal head is in fact Brown himself, and a very accurate likeness” (p. 254). In SD2406, W.W. Story writes: “We were all exceedingly interested by the photographs from Mr. Brown’s and your brother’s pictures.”
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