Robert Browning is portrayed in a three-quarter bust cabinet card by Elliott & Fry, 55 Baker Street, London, and at 7 Gloucester Terrace, S.W., with the typeset designation The Late Robert Browning on the front mount below the image, indicating this printing was issued or sold after the poet's death in December 1889. Browning appears in his later years, his body turned to his left and his gaze directed off-camera with a calm, slightly distant expression, his full white beard and mustache neatly trimmed, his hair white and swept back from a broad forehead. He wears a dark frock coat with a wide collar and a white shirt visible at the throat, the composition falling to just below the shoulder in a generous three-quarter bust format.

The wording The Late Robert Browning on the front mount places the printing of this card after December 12, 1889, when Browning died in Venice. Elliott & Fry held royal patronage and produced authorized portrait series of leading British literary figures; the Browning portraits made there were among the most widely circulated photographic likenesses of the poet during his later years. The reverse bears the full green-printed Elliott & Fry imprint with the royal arms and the notation Made in Germany, indicating the card stock was sourced from a German supplier.

Robert Browning (1812–1889) was one of the foremost Victorian poets, celebrated for his mastery of the dramatic monologue and for works including My Last Duchess, Fra Lippo Lippi, Andrea del Sarto, The Ring and the Book, and Pippa Passes. His elopement with Elizabeth Barrett in 1846 and their years in Florence became one of the most celebrated literary love stories of the century. After her death in 1861 he returned to England and was gradually recognized as one of the two greatest Victorian poets alongside Tennyson.

The reverse bears the full Elliott & Fry studio imprint at 55 Baker Street and 7 Gloucester Terrace, London, with the notation Made in Germany, and dealer code 3/05/08 / COLBC1 / Eb.