8»* a No 76., JpHB 6. '67.] 



NOTES AND QUEBIES. 



441 



LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 6, 1867. 



INEDITED liETTER OF THE LATE B. B. HATDON. 



I hand you herewith copy of a letter from the 

 late B. R. Haydon to his friend Edward Dubois, 

 Esq., which I think throws considerable light on 

 his quarrels with the Royal Academy. The in- 

 terest attaching to it is undoubted, and you may 

 perhaps deem it worthy a place in " N. & Q.," 

 the only objection being its extreme length ; but 

 I was loth to disturb its character by omitting 

 any portion. It is unpublished (I believe) by 

 Mr, Tom Taylor, in his Life of Haydon ; and this 

 is an additional reason why I think it should see 

 the light through your columns, throwing as it 

 does so much light on the character of its author. 

 The original is in my collection of autographs, 

 and I have taken some trouble to send you a cor- 

 rect copy — no easy matter with Haydon's imper- 

 fect style of penmanship. Edwakd Y. Lowne. 



13. New Broad Street. 



" My dear Sir, 

 " Many thanks for your notice, it is just as it ought 

 to be — no more allusion to me and the Royal Academy 

 — the sooner (with one. exception) such allusions are 

 dropped, the better for me, the Art, and everybody ; now, 

 my dear Sir, I am going to confess my convictions, not 

 my crimes — receive my convictions (Haydon's convic- 

 tions), with all due allowance for human vanity, fallibility, 

 and so forth, &c. &c. &c. Be assured the moment I ap- 

 peared in the Art, a student of the Royal Academy 

 (1805), there was amongst my fellow students a sort of 

 instinctive reference to me in all matters — they made me 

 their arbiter, their adviser, in many cases their instructor ; 

 and Fuzeli pointed me out to them for their example. I 

 got the Students to let me apply to Fuzeli to extend their 

 hours of study from 9 to 5, instead of from 11 to 3, as so 

 short a time cut up the day : when Fuzeli had a vase 

 presented value 60 Guineas, I was elected to present it ; 

 and the impression I made in so doing, to Flaxman and 

 others, excited jealous apprehensions in the R. A. of my 

 taking the lead — they passed a law directly after, that 

 in future no students should express their approbation of 

 the Keeper, and that it belonged to the R. A. By this 

 time I got into High Life, and my dissections having 

 given me the start in drawing beyond all my cotcm- 

 poraries, people of Fashion crowded to my Rooms to see 

 the young Genius who was to restore the art and rescue 

 the Country from the stigma of incapacity in Historical 

 Painting ! ! ! My rooms have been often so full of Men 

 of Rank and fashion and Talent, I could not paint. True 

 or no true, this was the impression — and when Dentatus 

 was sent to the Koyal Academy, the Council also could 

 not conceal their spite and irritability, when I met them 

 in company; tacitly seemed to be determined to give a 

 Youth who had been so successful, and had advanced so 

 rapidly, a checkmate. Dentatus was hung by vote in the 

 Great Room, and then taken down contrary to all honor, 

 and put in the Dark — the Council well knew the people 

 on whom this disgrace would have most eifect, it hit 

 exactly as they anticipated : I was deserted entirely a 

 whole year, I lost Commissions I was engaged to paint, 

 and was brought to the Brink of Ruin without having 

 ever given one cause of offence, for at that time, so help 



me God, I did not know I could write. Was this a re- 

 ward for my industry, my devotion, my love of the Art ? 

 Was this a just recompense for my sacrifice of all emolu- 

 ment, for my disinterested refusal of Portraits without 

 number ? Iso ! it was not, it was a mean, dirty exercise 

 of power to check the advance of a Young Man who had 

 offended no one; whose only object, the advance of a 

 style of Art, the Academy was founded to advance, and 

 which had been perverted from its destination by a ma- 

 jority of mediocre people, who had crept in to fill vacancies 

 from the want of Artists of Genius. The injustice was so 

 great to a picture of promise (for I was only 22) that 

 their conduct was censured by the press, and I myself 

 having a thorough belief I should have been hailed for 

 having given up all profit, became so severely wounded 

 and depressed, that the most gloomy, fierce, and bitter 

 feelings of revenge took possession of my nature. The 

 more I came in Contact, the more I persevered, I was 

 dreaded — there seemed a feeling as if, should I be encou- 

 raged, my claims in the Academy when admitted to the 

 Head of it, would have set at defiance all others ; being 

 in that style which ought to be the style to entitle any 

 Man who displays talents in it, to take the lead ; and I 

 am perfectly convinced that my general knowledge (im- 

 perfect as it may be), my literary habits, my influence at 

 that time in High Life where Art was relished, my re- 

 putation among the Students, and the hopes everywhere 

 expressed that I was at last the Man ; so far from helping 

 me on, were first the great causes of envy, and then of 

 apprehension among the good old Established body of 

 Academicians. I applied for admission (before, recollect, 

 I had written a line) 1810, and was refused. I finished 

 Macbeth and then attacked 1812. Fuzeli said Dentatus 

 was the best picture ever painted u^ to that time by an 

 Englishman — my own conviction is, it is the best up to 

 this. Well! what could the Academicians now say — 

 they had no excuse (for I had not written) why they de- 

 nied my talents, said, I was overrated. I then absented 

 myself from the Academy for six years, they said I was 

 afraid to exhibit by their works — in short, first I had no 

 talents, then, I was afraid, then I was irritable — and lastly 

 when I tried them after years of absence, and they again 

 refused, the excuse was, nobody denies his talents, but his 

 moral character ! Knowing that my misfortunes brought 

 on by their cruelty had in a commercial country hke 

 England, rendered of course my moral faith, a matter of 

 suspicion. Let any Academician come forth, and state 

 one fact in public against my Moral Character ; and I will 

 refute him — he dare not — Is this not quite worthy of all 

 their treatment of me? to whisper what they can't con- 

 firm ; to ruin in character when they have been beaten in 

 talent. Pray who was President in the Collection of the 

 best British Works 1825? The Painter of * or 



Lady Louisa Lambton ! Suppose I had been guilty of 

 asking People to sit, and then reminding them they had 

 not paid half-price, and the moment I get it, keeping 

 them without their pictures for Ever ! Suppose the Duke 

 had advanced me 2000 guis. for a work which I never 

 begun till it was impossible to paint it ! Supposing I had 

 taken advantage of writs of error to keep poor tradesmen 

 out of their money from mere spite, and then pay 60 or 

 GO or 30 for the "mere purpose of gratifying my spite 1 

 Suppose a Lady of Fashion had lent me a Bandeau of 

 Jewels to paint in her portrait, and to suit, and help my 

 necessities, I had pawned it for a few days, and when 

 suddenly asked for it, was obliged to tell truth, and beg 

 mercy. Suppose I had gone to a Sheriff's Officer who 

 had executions in my House, cried like an Infant, and 

 begged a week, and suppose Sheriff's Officer had had so 

 little reliance on my word, as to plant his man night and 



* This word illegible. 



