The expression "Less is more" first appeared in a poem by which poet?

The expression "Less is more" first appeared in a poem by poet, Robert Browning. The poem by Browning was written about "Andrea del Sarto" (1486—1530), an Italian painter from Florence.

In the poem "The Faultless Painter" (1855), Browning wrote:

Who strive - you don't know how the others strive

To paint a little thing like that you smeared

Carelessly passing with your robes afloat,-

Yet do much less, so much less, Someone says,

(I know his name, no matter) - so much less!

Well, less is more, Lucrezia.

Browning's meaning is clear. Simplicity is better than an elaborate embellishment. Sometimes something simple is better than something advanced or complicated.

Browning was born in May 1812, London, England. He died in December 1889 in Venice, Italy. He was a major English poet of the Victorian age and was noted for his mastery of dramatic monologue and psychological portraiture. His most noted works are "The Ring and the Book" (1868–69), the story of a Roman murder trial in 12 books and "My Last Duchess", a poem that first appeared in 1842 in Browning's "Dramatic Lyrics".

As a boy, Browning's parents took a great interest in his education and personal growth. He read voraciously as a youth, and began to write poetry while still quite young. He was greatly influenced by Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose radicalism urged a rethinking of modern society. At the time of his death, he was praised for his exploration of the possibilities of dramatic poetry.