BENJAMIN ROBERT HAYDON.* MIL HAYDON has undertaken a filial task,
and it is impossible not to sympathise with the heartiness of the defence which gives life to this memoir of his father. The writer, who disclaims all pre- tensions to literature, is evidently a well-read man, and his re- marks and illustrations, although sometimes not strictly pertinent, are always interesting. He feels strongly and writes strongly, and occasionally his feelings get the better of his judgment ; but much may be forgiven to the son of a man so gifted and so un- fortunate. The story of Haydon's career is infinitely sad, and though thirty years have passed since his death, it is impossible even now to avoid feeling grieved and perplexed at the embarrass- ments which pressed down a man whose nature was naturally so elastic, whose faith in his own genius was so firm, who possessed so many noble qualities, and who, in spite of all obstacles, ren- dered no common service to the interests of art in England.
Haydon's splendid devotion to his art affords an example which deserves the highest praise. From the moment when, as a boy, he discovered the bent of his genius, until the dreadful hour when his reason gave way, his concentration of purpose was sublime. We cannot quite agree with Mr. Tom Taylor in his judgment that Haydon's struggle to advance the art "was never without reference to the glorification of himself as the artist." No doubt, like most men of genius, he entertained a high esti- mate of his own powers—had his estimate been lower, his achievements would have been less—but art was a mistress whom he served unselfishly, and for whom he was ready to make any sacri- fice. - At the same time, he did, no doubt, cherish the belief, an entirely honest one on his part, that the advancement of high art in this country depended in no small measure on the suc- cessful execution of his own designs. Probably he served England better as a writer than as a painter. He never reached the high ideal he had formed, but his courageous, although in- discreet letters and pamphlets on the state of art, and the defects of the Academy, aroused the attention of the country. We owe also to Haydon, let it never be forgotten, the incomparable Elgin Marbles, and if he ruined his own prospects by his presumption and want of tact, his impetuosity and ardour awakened a national interest in art that had been before unknown.
Raydon's faith in his own genius was absolute, and it never faltered. A year before he died he wrote, "I am still, in spite of all my misfortunes, considered the leader, and I believe in my con- science I shall die at the head of the art of my glorious country ;" and some time earlier he had written : "The moment I touch a great canvas, I think I see my Creator smiling on all my efforts. The moment I do mean things for subsistence, I feel as if He had turned his back,—what's more, I believe it." This preposterous belief sus- tained his enthusiasm in some of the most trying moments of his life, but it was also a principal cause of the inextricable confusion in which he found himself involved. Follow Haydon's steps from the moment when he elected to give his life to painting, and it will be found that his difficulties were due to his own perversity and wrong-headedness, and to what we are forced to term moral obliquity, far more than to the causes which excite the anger of his son. Genius, however exalted, does not exempt a man from the duty of exercising ordinary prudence and discretiOn, nor will it save him from the misery that follows the neglect of those virtues. Haydon in many respects was a highly honourable man, but with regard to money matters he was utterly lax and careless, and this indifference proved the bitter curse of his life. At a very early period, Haydon became burdened with debts, and they hung round his neck for the remainder of his career. He ob- tained credit from tradesmen, says his son, and "for everything else he went to the money-lenders, who assisted him, though at the rate of 60 per cent. How he paid this interest was by the simple method of incurring a fresh debt to pay off the old one, till at length his punctuality becoming known, his patronage was sought, and offers made to accommodate him at 40 per cent. ; and this remained his normal rate for the rest of his life. This for punctuality, and 90 per cent (in law costs), for unpunctuality, • Benjamin Robert Hayden: Correepondenee and Table-Talk. With • Memoir by We Son, Frederick Wordsworth Hayden. With facsimile Illustrations from his Journals. 2 vols. London : Chatto and Windus. explains much." It does indeed, and this significant passage, which is to be found in a note upon p. 77 of the first volume, prepares us for all that follows. The biographer states that it was Leigh Hunt who initiated Haydon into the mysteries of drawing and discounting bills, and assuredly "Harold Skimpole" never had a more tractable pupil. Haydon's father, by the way, had a good printing and publishing business at Plymouth, but the artist never seems to have troubled his head about it ; and when the old man died, it passed, "nobody knows how, to nobody knows whom, who sold it, nobody knows why, and disappeared, nobody knows where." The "great busi- ness," we read on another page, was lost past redemption, and had left him literally without one sixpence he could call his own. "I do not know that the matter weighed on Haydon's mind. Anyhow, he never dared to look it in the face." Already surrounded by difficulties and creditors, he had committed "the most imprudent act of his whole life" by mar- rying, and thus he deliberately brought a beautiful woman into the sea of trouble in which he was floundering himself. Women are always noblest in adversity, and Mrs. Haydon was no excep- tion to the rule ; but the eight children she bore him did not, it need scarcely be said, make Haydon's struggle with fortune less. arduous. His son, we must add, writes nonsense, when he allows the utter imprudence of the act in one line, and in another ob- serves that the moment you marry your prospects seem critical to creditors, and "they ruin you without remorse for taking the only step to enable you to pay off your debts."
Haydon's perseverance in carrying out his art-designs, in spite of constant pecuniary embarrassment and the indifference of the public, shows a strength of purpose and a passionate delight in his work which make us regret all the more that his courage was not tempered with discretion. "I am afraid my dear father was wanting in tact," says the writer, which is a gentle way of noting one of his failings. It is not too much to say that Haydon was one of the most imprudent and impracticable of men, who fol- lowed his own inclinations at any cost, both in small matters and great, and deliberately threw himself out of the groove in which worldly success might have been attained. Had this been necessary for the interests of his art, such worldly folly might be a mark of the highest wisdom, but it is impossible to doubt that his extreme pertinacity and combativeness did but hinder the aim he had in view. It is quite possible to take a bold course without "run- ning a muck" against every manS who disagrees with you, and it is not generally well to thrust an opponent into the ditch in order to exhibit your muscular power. His obstinacy cost him some of his truest friends, and he was quite young and wholly necessitous when he saw fit to quarrel with the best of them, Sir George Beau- mont. This contretemps is highly characteristic. He painted a pic- ture for his friend which was too large for him to hang on his walls, and on his request, made through Wilkie, to paint another on a smaller scale, Haydon refused at first. "At length," writes his son, "he conceded, though I have little doubt with such bad grace that Sir George now took offence, and disregarded the concession. Then Haydon, out of regard for Sir George, he says, but more probably out of pique and for his own self-will--or, perhaps, for all three—chose to assume Sir George wished to give up the com- mission, seized the opportunity to enlarge the canvas, and painted in Macbeth the full size of life. Sir George was astounded. And certainly such a proceeding had an unpleasant air of defiance about it." We read further on, that Sir George Beaumont, having seen the " Macbeth " at the British Gallery, "said it was too large for any room he had at Cole-Orton, and wrote to Haydon to decline its possession, according to their understanding, but offering £100 towards expenses, and a commission for a smaller picture, the price to be settled by arbi- tration. Haydon petulantly rejected both offers, said he would 'keep the "Macbeth," and would not paint another picture on any account for Sir George.' The whole affair was an unhappy business, and was unquestionably the origin of Haydon's pecuniary troubles. Before he began Macbeth" he owed nothing. On the day Sir George refused to purchase it he was nearly £500 in debt, the price he put upon the picture." Mr. Haydon observes that Sir George Beaumont had space on his walls for the picture, but a man must know best what room he has to spare for an artist's work, and may be excused for declining to hang a prodigious canvas of perhaps twenty feet by fifteen feet. Hayden, by the way, seemed to think that high art necessarily meant large art, and he persisted in painting pictures too large to be bought by any one who lived in a moderate-sized house. The biographer seems to think, as his father thought before him, that the nobility were
bound to buy these colossal works, and he never misses an opportunity of sneering at them for not relieving Ilaydon of his difficulties by purchasing his pictures. We do not think he has made out a case. One may wish, and wish heartily, that the artist could have been relieved of his daily incubus of debt, and been free to work without anxiety. But this Hayden might have done, had he acted with common pru- dence; and a nobleman, however wealthy, is not bound to support an artist whose pictures, let us say, he has not taste enough to admire, because he cherishes high designs and generous aspirations. As it was, the unfortunate artist did not fail to apply for help to any nobleman or gentleman whom he thought likely to pay his debts. The biographer goes frantic on this subject. It seems- to him so easy for a duke or an earl "to take this struggling man by the hand, and with the gift of a few thousand pounds put him in a position of security for life." No doubt, if this. had been done, it might have proved a vast blessing to the artist and his family ; but one does not exactly see any ground for blaming any earl or duke because he did not support a thriftless man of genius, who might, by the exercise of the ordinary pro- vidence expected from the shopkeeper, the merchant, or the artisan, have made himself independent. And it was no easy matter to relieve an artist who was fast bound in the chains of the money-lenders. Many and many a time, however, Haydon's urgent claims were generously responded to, and readers of the- biography or of the diary will find several instances of the friendly conduct of noblemen who came to his rescue at critical moments.
As we have already said, the story of Haydon's life is one of the most painful in the history of art. We have no concern now-a- days with the personal animosities that pursued him in conse- quence of his courageous exposure of the shortcomings of the Academy. It was a deed that hindered his advancement, but it was bravely done ; and however men may differ with regard to. Haydon's position as an artist, there can be no doubt that the ser- vice he performed at that time was one of no common significance, and there is probably as little doubt that he will retain a place in the history of English Art. As much cannot be said of some of his opponents, or of the artists who received rewards that would have been more justly conferred upon Haydon. Moreover, in estimating Haydon, it is impossible to forget that if he sinned much, he suffered much ; that he cherished a noble ambition through a life of anxiety and defeat, and that he drew towards. him and won the friendship of some of the most illustrious men living in his time. Mr. Haydon's volumes cannot fail -to attract considerable attention, and we shall be surprised if they do not also- excite some controversy. The work is one that will be frequently consulted by readers interested in the literature of Art, and it is to. be regretted that it lacks the prime requisite of such a book,—a
good index. •■•
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