Supporting Documents

SD1846.  James Russell Lowell to Charles Eliot Norton

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 380 (in part).

London

August 11 [sic, for 10], 1855.

Well, what have I been doing and what am I doing in London? …

We met Browning and his wife there [Dulwich Picture Gallery], and Browning pointed out to us some reeds behind Jacob, evidently scratched in with the handle of the brush, showing how rapidly it had been painted. Another picture which interested me was a portrait of Lady Venetia Digby, by Vandyke. It seems painted after death. She lies on a pillow, pale, and with flowers strewn about her. I was glad to show Mrs. Browning the likeness of a woman who had inspired so noble and enduring a love in so remarkable a man as Sir Kenelm. She is always associated in my mind with Beatrice and with the better part of my life. …

Publication: Letters of James Russell Lowell, ed. Charles Eliot Norton (New York, 1894), I, 234–240.

Manuscript: Harvard University.

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