Brownings' Shadow at Yaddo

If fortunate enough to gain entry into the private Yaddo mansion in the late 1890s, you would have noticed two large paintings in the main hall: Eastman Johnson's portrait of the Lady of Yaddo herself, Kristina Trask, staring directly across the hall at a full-length portrait of English poet and dramatist Robert Browning, painted by his son, Robert "Pen" Barrett Browning. This unexpected vis-à-vis is the central frame of this study: The Brownings' Shadow at Yaddo.

The story of this uncanny encounter has yielded surprising findings. Robert and Elizabeth Brownings' literary shadow haunted Katrina Trask's work, from her first publication. Spencer and Katrina Trask also personally interacted with the Brownings through their American daughter-in-law, Fannie Coddington Browning, Katrina's girlhood friend. In addition to investigating the Trasks' literary and artistic connections with the Brownings, this book offers an interpretation of the two paintings by Pen still on view at Yaddo. The Brownings' spirit lives on in Yaddo through the art of their son.