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    black looks . Oh , the delight of hurrying it away to my bed-room , turning over the plates , copying them out , learning the origin and insertion of the muscles , and then getting my sister to hear me ! She and I used to walk about the house , with our arms round each other ' s neck , —she saying , ' How many heads to the deltoid ?' « Where does it rise ? ' ' Where is it inserted ? ' and I answering . By these means , in the course of a fortnight , I got by heart all the muscles of the body . ^ My . energy was incessant . My head whirled at the idea of going to London and beginning life for myself . My father had routed me from the shop , because I was in the way with my drawings ; I had been driven from the sitting-room , because the cloth had to be laid ; scolded from the landing-place , because the stairs must be swept ; driven to my attic , which now became too small ; and at last I took refuge in my bed-room .

    " One morning as I lay awake very early , musing on my future prospects , the door slowly opened , and in crept my dear mother with a look of sleepless anxiety . She sat down on my bed-side , and took my hand , and said that my father blamed her very much for promising that I should go up to London , that he had been talking all night to her , and had said that I should have everything I wished , if I would only give up my scheme . She added , ' My dear Benjamin , you are our only support , and in the delicate state of your poor father ' s health , God only knows how soon I may be left alone and unaided . It will break my heart if , after all my care and anxiety for your infancy , you leave me , just as you are becoming able to comfort , and console me . '

    "I was deeply affected , but checking my tears , T told her in & voice struggling to be calm , that it was of no use to attempt to dissuade me . I felt impelled by something I could not resist . 'Do not , ' said I ,. ' my dear mother , think me cruel , I can never forget your love and affection , but yet I cannot help it—I must be a painter / Kissing me with wet cheeks , and trembling lips , she said in . a broken voice , ' She did not blame me : she applauded my resolution , but she could not bear to part with me . ' . ' . ' "J , then begged her to tell my father that , it was useless to harass me with further " opposition . She rose , sobbing as if to break her heart , and slowly left my room , borne down with affliction . The instant she was gone , I fell upon my knees , arid prayed God to forgive me if I was cruel , but to grant me firmness , purity , and piety , to go on in the right way for success , * # # * # *

    " Remonstrances , quarrels , scoldings , tookplacewithout end ; till at last , seeing all was useless , and cursing my firmness , they agrged to let ine go , and give me twenty pounds to start upon . " Profound indeed were the predictions that I would be glad to return to papa and mamma before a month was over . " My poor father worn down with- long sickness , the sad effect of trying to drown remembrance in wine , tottered about me . I collected my books and colours —packed my things—and on the 13 th of May , 1804 , took my place in the mail for the next day . The evening was passed in silent musing . Affection for home was smothered , not extinguished in me , I thought only of London—Sir Joshua —Drawing—Dissection—and High Art .

    " The next day , I ate little , 6 poke less , and kissed my mother many times . When all my things were corded and packed ready for the mail , I hung about my mother with a fluttering at my heart , in which duty , affection , and ambition were struggling for the mastery . "As evening approached I missed my mother . At last the guard ' s horn announced the coming mail ; I rushed up stairs , called her dear name , and was answered only by violent sobbings from my own bed-room . She could not speak , —she could not see me , —' God bless you , my dear child , ' I could just make out in her sobbings . The guard became impatient ; I returned slowly down stairs with my heart too full to speak , shook my father by the hand , got in , the trunks were soon on the top , the whip cracked , the horses pranced and started off—my career for life had begun !"

    He flung himself into the vortex . He studied , dreamed , quarrelled , felt the extremities of poverty , but struggled on amidst the cheers of friends and the sneers of antagonists , living a wayward , ill-regulated , fierce , but happy life , full of emotion . Let our second glance be at his triumph . He has painted Christ ' s Entry into Jerusalem , and exhibits it : — " Glorious days ! The opening of the exhibition of a picture of mine was relished by none so much as by my pupils . Tq them I trusted for writing nnd despatching tickets for the private days , and it was a time of general fun and enjoyment in my house and painting-room . In the evening I returned and signed , till they amounted to 800 , I having previously marked the Court Guide . All the ministers and their ladies , all the foreign ambassadors ^ all tho bish ops , all the beauties in high life , the officers on guard at tho palace , all the geniuses in town , and everybody of any notewore invited and came .

    , " I got through the glazing in three days ; , covered up tho picture , and finished tho room by Friday night , promising tho men a guinea to drink . Never did fine fellows prove themselves more thorough-bred . " Ah those dayB ! Whilst tlio excitement lasts it is all very well , but then comes the reaction and tho exhaustion . The tickets were all out . Saturday camo at last . I staid over at Hatchctt ' Co / lee Room , wont into tho hall before tho hour I had fixed , and seeing servants all at their posts , chairs all in a row , thought it odd nobody had como before twelve . I folt at any rate somebody ought to have been over-anxious . Then I got wretched and said , < Perhaps , nobody will come . coffee tcli

    Yc « nobody will come , that ' s clear / I went over to tho -room again , wainff ' thc clock inside tho bar . At half-past twelve I stolo over again . Sammonn looked knowing . ' Anybody como ? ' m \ d I . ' Yes , air ; Sir William Scott is just tf orio in ' ' That will do , ho always gooH to every exhibition on earth , and bringM everybody . ' Away I went , and had a good , lunch , drank a couple of glasses of sherry , and sullied forth about half-pn « fc three , ready for anything . Ah I turned mv nnxioun ovch t owards the hull , a crowd of carriages was blocking up 1 iccudilly . « Ha ha , that will do / said I ; and bounding over , I found tho whole passage full of servants , and nil tho bustle and chat , nnd iioibo and hallooing of coachmen , of a regular rout at noon-day ! Up I wont , proudly ; Saimnons wan seven loot high ; there was no speaking to him . Tho room was ftill . Keats and Ha / htt wore up in a corner , really rejoicing . At this moment in camo the 1 email ambassador and his suite ; his fine manly pornm and black beard , with I iih splendid dress made a prodigioufl show , and ho miid , in good EngliBh and m a loud voice ,

    ' I like tho elbow of soldier . « By fivo all whb enthusiasm , especially amongst tho women . I rotty dears when wcro thoir hearts ever shut against enterprise , pathos , or passion i >

    " Still the Christ ' s head was certainly not successful . The penitent girl , blushing and hidino- her face , brought to Christ by her anxious mother ; the Samaritan woman and centurion spreading their garments in the road ; Wordsworth ' s bowing head ; Newton ' s face of belief ; Voltaire ' s sneer ; the enormous shouting crowd , and the action and position of our Saviour , with Peter and John , were decided favourites . The Christ ' s head startled people . It was not the traditional head ; not the type , not orthodox . Everybody seemed afraid , when in walked , with all the dignity of her majestic presence , Mrs . Siddons , like a Cere ' s or a Juno . The whole room remained dead silent , and allowed her to think . After a few minutes Sir George Beaumont , who was extremely anxious , said in a very delicate manner , ' How do you like the Christ ? ' Everybody listened for her reply . After a moment , in a deep , loud , tragic tone she said , 'It is completely successful . I was then presented with all the ceremonies of a levee , and she invited me to her house , in an awful tone , and expressed her high admiration of the way in which I had so variously modified the same expression . ' The paleness of your . Christ , said she ' ives it a supernatural look / ¦

    , g _ ; " Lady Murray said , ' Why , you have a complete rout / Lord Mulgravewas at the top of the room , and received congratulations from everybody . Wilkie tried to be enthusiastic ; Jackson was startled ; but neither expressed themselves to me as I had done to them under similar circumstances . Prince Hoare was there . In fact , all the world of fashion was there ; and I returned home totally overwhelmed by a flood of sensations , which may easily be conceived by every reader who remembers what I had undergone since I begun the study of the art . " The Jerusalem was considered , like the Solomon , a national triumph . I had proved that the people cared about High Art , and that an Englishman could execute it . I had defied the Academy ; I kept my position against its incessant obloquy . I had brought a great work to successful conclusion without legitimate means " relying on my energy and the sympathy of my friends .

    , " On the Monday after the exhibition opened to the public . The rush was great , and went on increasing j the success was so palpable , so decided , that the Academicians got into a fury , and crept to see it one at a time , each time holding forth to their friends , and damning it by saying it had good parts . Notwithstanding the feeling displayed in its favour , the abuse of it was so great that it was the subject of a positive battle . " -... ¦ ¦ And after this we follow him-. through many a sad scene , enlivened occasionally by a gleam of success , but growing darker and darker with troubles , sorrows , failures , till his courage gives way , and suicide becomes

    his desperate refuge ! ^ . , The pleasanter traits noticeable are the steady affection borne to ms wife and children , his own earnest laboriousness and impassioned delight in Art , and the ever youthful confidence with which he-sustained himself through all struggles . Tom Taylor , who has executed his difficult task in a manner deserving of the warmest praise , and whose editing ought to be a model for future biographers , closes these volumes with an excellent , though somewhat stern appreciation of Haydon as a man and artist , aud fromUiat appreciation we borrow the following remarks : —

    " Haydon was self-willed to obstinacy . He rarely asked advice , and never took it unless it approved itself to him , without reference to the sagacity or information of the adviser . He was indefatigable in labour during his periods of application , but he was often diverted from his art by professional polemics , by fits of reading , and by moods of discomfort and disgust , and other distractions which are explained by his circumstances . What he undertook he generally mastered , and he showsja rare ' thoroughness' in the manner of his inquiries and studies , and a pertinacity not often associated with so much vehemence and passion us belonged to him . " His judgment was essentially unsound in all matters where he was personally interested . ° His inordinate vanity ( which is sometimes ludicrously exhibited ) blinded him throughout to the quality of his own works , the amount of influence he could wield , and the extent of sympathy he excited .

    " He was unscrupulous in conduct , but not unprincipled , and , I believe , though many will question it , that he seldom contracted obligations without the intention and expectation of meeting them . But when n man once becomes embarrassed , it is hardly possible to estimate the value , or no-value rather , of such intentions . His conduct in inducing his pupils to accept bills for his accommodation , admits of no defence , and I cannot offer any palliation for his habits of begging and borrowing beyond those which these memoirs must suggest to all fairly-judging readers , —I mean his necessities , his sanguine temperament , his occasional extraordinary successes , and his pervading conviction that he was the apostle and martyr of high art , and , as such , had u sort of right to support from those who would not find him the employment he was always craving . His constant demand was i ' ov work and wages , and in default of these , ho asked for subsistence while ho worked , in tho hope thnt sooner or later tho wages must come .

    " His religiousness is puzzling . Few men have lived in a more continuous practice , of prayer ; nnd though his arc little more than requests for what he most desired , addressed to tho Being in whose power lie believed it to bo to grant them , —begging-letters , in fact , despatched to the Almighty , —it must not be forgotten that the prayers of many ' eminently-pious' people , and indeed of whole churchos and sects , arc little more than this . His faith in an over-ruling' power was not strong enough to induce a calm and steadfast waiting upon ( UhVh will , but neither , ns it seems to me , is tho faith of the inoat , prayerful persona of this character . One thing I may say , that ho wecuis to have lived iu the habitual belief of a personal , overruling , and merciful Deity , and that this belief influenced his inward life , his relations with his family , aud , so fur as his necessities did not interfere , with tho world .

    " His lovo of art is , to my mind , inextricable from bin belief in himself ; and Iuh struggle to advance tho art was never without reference to tho glorification of himself as tho artist . " ' Ilia , ambition for High Art was but-personal ambition ; lio not only identified himself with it , but naively confesses in more than one place , that ho was " mudo uneasy when ho thought any oilier painter' was working in tho same- direction . " When iirat Wilkio ' s name is mentioned as a young man with something in him , — " Hang the fellow , " writes Haydon , " I hope with his something he is not going to bo an historical painter !" Elfsewhero ho says , — " Yet tJiere was this consolation ; nobody else in the art was doing any important thing . " And road th \ 8 : —

    " * Have not the oilbrts of the nation , I asked myself , ' been gigantic ? To such glories she only wants to add tho glories of uiy noble art to make her the grandest nation in tho world , and theuo aho shnll havo if God » pnve my life . ' "

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    Jvi ^ y 23 ; 1853 . ] THE LEADER . ^

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 23, 1853, page 715, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1996/page/19/