Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Artist

William Wetmore Story (American 1819–1895)

Date

1866

Medium

Marble

Dimensions

17 5/8 x 17 5/16 x 9 3/16 in. (44.8 x 44 x 23.4 cm)

Description

Many neoclassical sculptors took their themes from literature, both historical and contemporary. It is not surprising, then, that they would also produce portraits of writers, as the great Massachusetts-born sculptor William Wetmore Story does here of the English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Browning’s downward gaze implies contemplation and even melancholy, fitting attributes considering that the bust was created posthumously: it was commissioned by Browning’s family shortly after her death.

Photograph by Jerry L. Thompson for the Boston Athenæum

Inscription

Inscribed on reverse: IN MEMORIAM/WWS/ROMA 1866

Credit Line

Gift of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Thornton K. Lothrop: Thornton K. Lothrop, Mrs. Algernon Coolidge, and Miss Mary B. Lothrop, 1931

Object Number

UH36