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Recipient:
The painter Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846) met Keats at Leigh
Hunt's home in October 1816. They were close and devoted friends for
the next three years. Haydon included Keats's face in his historical
painting Christ's Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem, along with
Hazlitt's, Wordsworth's, and Lamb's. Their friendship ended in June
1819 when Haydon quarreled with their mutual friends Hunt and John
Hamilton Reynolds and reneged on a loan Keats had made him. Haydon's
work never achieved popular or critical success and he committed suicide
in 1846. He remains the source of most well-known anecdotes about
Keats; he also held the famous 'Immortal Dinner' of 1817, which Keats
attended with Wordsworth and Lamb.
Introduction: This brief note discusses Haydon's possible
illustrations for Keats's work. Keats ends the letter by telling
Haydon he will write to Taylor - and I have included the note to Taylor
(written on the same day) below.
Friday 23rd
My dear Haydon,
I have a complete fellow-feeling with you
in this business --so much so that it would be as well to wait for a
choice out of Hyperion--when that
Poem is done there will be a wide range for you--in Endymion I think you
may have many bits of the deep and sentimental cast--the nature of
Hyperion will lead me to treat it
in a more naked and grecian Manner--and the march of passion and
endeavour will be undeviating--and one great contrast between them will
be--that the Hero of the written tale being mortal is led on, like
Buonaparte, by circumstance; whereas the Apollo in Hyperion being a
fore-seeing God will shape his actions like one. But I am counting &c.
Your proposal pleases me--and, believe
me, I would not have my Head in the shop windows from any hand but
yours--no by Apelles!
I will write Taylor and you shall hear
from me
Yours ever
John Keats--
Friday 23rd
My dear Taylor,
I have spoken to Haydon about the
Drawing--he would do it with all his Art and Heart too if so I will
it--however he has written thus to me--but I must tell you first, he
intends painting a finished picture from the Poem--thus he writes
"When I do any thing for your poem, it
must be effectual--an honor to both of us--to hurry up a sketch for the
season won't do. I think an engraving from your head, from a Chalk
drawing of mine--done with all my might-to which I would put my name,
would answer Taylor's Idea more than the other indeed I am sure of
it--this I will do & this will be effectual and as I have not done it
for any other human being--it will have an effect"
What think you of this? Let me hear. I
shall have my second book in readiness forthwith--
Your's most sincerely
John Keats--
If Reynolds calls tell him three lines
would be acceptable for I am squat at Hampstead
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