1844.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



377 



fession, each member of which gets enchanted at the admission, let 

 what will be the sacrifice. The architects have set a noble example, 

 the sculptors should follow them, but as to the poor, dyspeptic 

 painters, the thought, the mere thought, of opposing the Academy 

 would bring on, in the whole profession, such alarming symptoms that 

 calomel would rise in the market ! Kick them Academicians, put 

 your feet on their necks; well may Nelson and George IV. turn their 

 backs on such an assemblage. Ijook at an old R. A. at a rout, or a 

 conversazione. Do you see that pale faced, timid, crawling creature, 

 creeping along by the pictures, afraid to bow, or see, or speak, or 

 think, dressed like a Guy Faux, doing the gentleman ? do you see him 

 meet Haydon ? do vou see his blank stare, as if he never saw him 

 before wlien others ccm remark it ? at that very moment he is squeezing 

 his hand, beneath the crowd, in approval of his opposition, — tliat's the 

 thorough-bred old R. A. 



One great cause of their influence is the careless ignorance of the 

 upper classes ; all over the country the pernicious consequences are 

 visible ; there is a freemasonry not only in the members, but in the 

 profession who wish to become so ; the danger of it is great, because 

 whatever the Academy does, the apparent motive is totally different 

 from the real one ; the Academy as a body, and each member of the 

 body, make it a law of their practice to obtain the object they aim at 

 by keeping attention directed to one they are utterly indifferent about. 

 Minister, nobility and sovereign are thus always thrown oft' their guard, 

 when the reasoners have an oliject to gain, and up they start in an 

 opposite direction, fixed, prepared and ready, to the incredulity of 

 all; next to High Art and enlightening the people, there is nothing 

 they hate so much as zeal ; and it was the zeal, the unalloyed zeal of 

 Haydon, when a student, that first attracted their remark, and then 

 their hatred ; they saw, with their usual sagacity, if they did not ad- 

 vance him he would advance himself, and seeing him brougljt into 

 high life, by (he first patrons, with orders for his historical pictures, 

 before even he had touched a brush, their hatred became an insanity ; 

 without any cause, they drove him to exasperation by the greatest 

 injustice, and then complained of temper! Deprived him of all in- 

 come, by eternal calumny, and then sneered at him for being poorl 

 Denied him all talent, harrassed him four times to a prison, and then 

 brought forth his misfortunes as an excuse for greater persecutions ; 

 in fact, whatever he did, whatever he said, whatever he wrote, what- 

 ever he painted, he was always wrong; and their hatred increased 

 exactly in proportion to their convicted consciousness of being in the 

 wrong themselves from beginning to end. 



Every human being is composed, as we all know, of good and of 

 evil — a man of genius is like other men, in sharing the frailties of his 

 species ; his perceptions are too keen not to penetrate the motives of 

 others, and exactly in proportion to their injustice is the evil part of 

 his nature brought into play. Tiberius, Caligula, Louis XI., Borgia, 

 were not naturally evil, as at last, but their treatment had been so un- 

 just that what was good had been overwhelmed by the eternal excite- 

 ment of the evil, and when elevated to power, where their revenge 

 could be gratified, they had too long practised retaliation to stop when 

 there was no obstruction to their propensities. 



Oppression raised in Haydon a dormant power of expressing his 

 thoughts, which he was not aware he possessed, and hence the art 

 has been kept ever since in a continual state of uproar and excite- 

 ment, which never would have taken place if he, as a youth, had been 

 allowed to progress regularly to that position which he was entitled 

 to by his genius, his education, and his respectful conduct to his 

 elders — at that time without reproach. 



I do not wish to excuse the violent manner in which he revenged 

 the abominable injustice of a body of men, whose duty it was to have 

 taken him, as a deserving student, by the hand ; far less do I desire 

 to palliate their eternal and inhuman treatment, for not content with 

 denying him his rights, they were compelled to decry his character to 

 excuse their inexcusable aversion ; and every student for the last 30 

 years, who has been educated at the Academy, has been regularly 

 drilled to consider Haydon a monster, with whom no terms ought to 

 be kept ; he is never alluded to with the decency of common breed- 

 ing, that fellow Haydon, that scamp Haydon, that scoundrel Haydon, 

 is the common appellation in the conversation of painter, sculptor, or 

 architect. And pray what has he done ? Has he taken half price 

 from the nobility and kept them for years without their orders? never. 

 Did he ever pass his word with a patron and break it? never. Did 

 he ever, in 40 years, receive his money in advance and fail in his 

 honour? never. Did the Duke ever advance him £5,000 for a grand 

 picture of all his generals and himself, and did he die without even 

 beginning it? never. Did any lady of f ishiou ever leav(> her jewels 

 with Haydon to be painted, and when she wanted them for a rout was 

 obliged to redeem them from a pawnbrokers ? never. Has any noble- 

 man aoy cause to complain of him in his engagement ? not one. Ah, 



but he has been in prison. Certainly, and was tried by a jury of cre- 

 ditors, the severest of all juries. Could everv Academician have 

 borne such a test? no, I, Tinion, answer uo, because I know it. 



You first drive liini to prison, by calumniating him out of employ- 

 ment, then reproach him for being 'there. Had he i;j,000, £tj,000, or 

 £8,000 a year for years ? He had no income for IG years, and yet 

 produced great works. Did the evil of the Academy end with its 

 own members, they might be let alone to eat each other; but they are 

 the Tarantula of British art, the Boa constrictor of painting. 



Their long legs and fibrous fangs extend over the empire ; there is 

 in every great town an Academy party and an opposition, but the 

 people are not yet taught enough to understand the question on either 

 side, and hence the Academy carry on the game at a gain ; thev grasp 

 at every available influence, and if the ministers do not take care 

 every office in art will fall into their hands; then, woe to genius. 

 Already it is hinted the national pictures should be boarded up, to 

 give more room for the exhibition, amiable proposal ; Why not say 

 at once — the Ganymede of Titian is an inconvenient comparison! 

 fSeguier is dead, or such a plan would never have been proposed. 



Under the clypeum sejitemplictm of their great protector in the house, 

 there is no antic, defiance, oppression, or impertinence they will not 

 indulge in. But some people are never so dangerous as when they 

 are artectionate ; and let them beware, for with great talents, their 

 l^rotector has tendencies which almost render nugatory the promptings 

 of his genius, though he is the very man for the time, for with less 

 prudence and more heroism, v\ith less common sense and more en- 

 thusiasm, he would be a dangerous leader at this grand period of 

 moral and intellectual combustion; the Radicals hate him, because he 

 will not destroy; the Tories detest him, because he will improve; 

 the Reformers dread him, because, in acknowledging the propriety of 

 cleansing the walls, he takes care of the foundations ; and such is his 

 apparent intermediatism that he is more than suspected of being a dor- 

 mant Whig; his virtues become vices, in great emergencies, for 

 wishing to secure all interests, he runs the risk of benefitting none, 

 and opposes so long the just demands of common sense, as in Schedule 

 A and Catholic Rights, till, being compelled to grant what he cannot 

 refuse, what he yields has more the look of apprehension than convic- 

 tion, and thus he always loses the popularity of bestoiving a grace. 



This distinguished man is said to be without friendships, art'ections 

 or sympathies — it is a falsehood, he has a tender heart, but exacts 

 more submission than is consistent with the dignity of independence ; 

 he never forgives any man who has exposed him to himself; he never 

 forgives any man who has discovered a weakness; to obtain his at- 

 tention you must believe him infallible ; his high honour is not always 

 faultless ; pride perhaps is the basis of his correct morality, and per- 

 haps his religion is founded on his pride. 



In his enmities he is not charitable, no helplessness or desti- 

 tution in one with whom he is displeased, averts for an instant a final 

 thrust if the opportunity presents itself; he is quickly oftended, and 

 never forgives, and would stride over the dead body of an oft'ender he 

 had reduced to ruin and deatii, (if he had dared to oppose him,) as a 

 just and necessary sacrifice to offi'uded wealth. 



He defends the Academy, not because he is convinced it needs no 

 correction, but he considers it a link in the chain of constituted au- 

 thorities; convince him the altar and the throne will be safe if the 

 members be increased ; shew him the colonial estimates will go on as 

 usual if the incomes of the officers be doubled ; prove to him that de- 

 voting two centres to High Art in the great room by law, will not en- 

 danger onr empire in India ; appeal to him, when the pressure on a 

 great chain is becoming too tight for its resistance, if it be not better 

 to add a new link, than risk the bursting of the whole chain together; 

 — approach him thus, you will ease his apprehension and carry the 

 day. His defence of the Academy was no credit to his understand- 

 ing, and his decision on the cartoons no honour to his taste or his 

 heart. 



I have now done with the Academy for the present; I have a great 

 deal to say on Eastlake's reports, in the mean time, I caution the 

 youth to be wary of the last — it is full of experimental vehicles, and 

 will tend to revive, if followed, th.it pernicious insanity which the in- 

 troduction of pure oil, by Wilkie and Haydon, so usefully destroyed. 



The art is in a considerable degree of inflammation, a blister, I 

 think would relieve it, there are a great many pimples on its fair face, 

 I shall therefore, with your leave, apply a Uirge one next number, and 

 suppose, in future, we head all communications from me in your ex- 

 cellent Journal as the " Art Blisteu," the next letter to be No. I. 



" That the whole life of Athens were in this, 

 Thus would I eat it. (Eats a rout.)'' 



TllION. 



