Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: The Dinner Party: Heritage Floor: Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, one of the most influential poets of the nineteenth century, had already published The Seraphim and Other Poems (1838) and Poems (1844) when she eloped with poet Robert Browning in 1846. Her well-known Sonnets from the PortugueseAurora (1850) were dedicated to her husband, who supported her work and cared for her during her frequent bouts with illness. Her later work, including the 1857 novel Aurora Leigh and poetry volumes Casa Guidi Windows (1851) and Poems Before Congress (1860), deal with political and social themes, including the status of women, slavery, the struggle for the unification of Italy, and child labor in England.