SD1537. Mary Russell Mitford to Anna Maria Goldsmid
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 17, 278 (in part).
Swallowfield
[1852]
I rejoice to hear good news of you all, dearest Miss Goldsmid; and I answer at once. …
I know that you would like poor Haydon’s Life. … You remember his sending some papers to Mrs. Browning (then Miss Barrett) to be taken care of, a few days before his death. Well, he had painted a portrait of me, far bigger than life, and with equal excess of colour, but otherwise like. My father, however, had not praised it enough to please him. His nice taste had found that he disliked it. So it had been kept by the artist, and he had cut out the head. This head was amongst the things sent to Miss Barrett. He gave it to her, he said, because he knew she would value it. The next day he called again in Wimpole Street, to say that he could not part with that portrait, he would only lend it to her. This was three days before his death. You may imagine how it touched me when I heard of it. By-the-way, I find this morning that this portrait, now in the possession of his and my friend Mr. Barrett, is about to be engraved for the Tragedies. …
Text: L’Estrange (2), III, 249–250.
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