Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Barrett Browning , 9 June 1860. Albumen carte-de-visite by Fratelli D'Alessandri. 3 3/4 in. x 2 1/4 in. (94 mm x 56 mm). © National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG P1094, reproduced under the terms of the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 Deed. [Click on the image to enlarge it].
Beset by miscarriages, Elizabeth Barrett Browning arrived late at motherhood: she had just turned 43 when "Penini" or "Pennini" or simply "Pen" was born in 1849. His unusual first name is said to have come from his early attempts to articulate the first of his middle names, which had been his paternal grandmother's maiden name, and was chosen as a tribute to her after her early death: she died just after the baby was born. She was of German stock on her father's side. The name was written in the Baptismal Register as "Wiedeman" with a single "n" (see Julia Bolton Holloway's photograph of the entry, p.162), and was dropped by Pen later in favour of Barrett, the second middle name that appears on the register (see also Finlayson 275 and 295).
Pen was to be an only child, and inevitably his mother doted on him. She loved to dress him prettily, writing to her sister Henrietta, "I do not see the necessity, moral or physical of corduroys and larger gaiters.... Why should you disguise and distort a young child’s natural grace by such things? No — it is quite contrary to my doxy. I avow to you — I even think that dressing a child in coarse heavy clothing is likely to act injuriously on his manners and gestures in after life..." (309). She was clearly aware that this was becoming rather unusual for an active boy, and admits that he himself wanted more grown-up attire: "I won't let him wear a shoe except of the soft polished leather.... I have added to my extravagance of buying him a new black velvet blouse, by buying him besides a green velvet blouse — in which he looks perfectly lovely, — the burnished curls hanging over it! I assure you Pen is admired considerably on all sides. 'Not a child like him in Rome,' people say — and are not wrong. His 'graceful manners' are particularly appreciated" (309).
Pen went on to study art, becoming a moderately successful artist and exhibiting a total of eleven works at the Royal Academy. In a not very distinguished life, he had an illegitimate daughter, married a wealthy American (but it does not seem to have been a happy marriage), and was "always loyal to both his parents" (Holloway 239). He is now mainly remembered as their son. — Jacqueline Banerjee
Bibliography
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Letters to her sister, 1846-1859. London: John Murray, 1929. Internet Archive. Web. 28 August 2026.
Finlayson, Iain. Browning: A Private Life. London: Harper, 2005.
Holloway, Julia Bolton. Elizabeth Barret Browning and Her Circle: Laurel Garland. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2025.
"Robert Wiedeman Barrett Browning." Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951. (University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database, 2011). Web. 28 August 2026. https://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/mapping/public/view/person.php?id=msib2_1208960987