Benjamin Robert Haydon was an English painter and writer, a mediocre artist but a fascinating personality. Inspired by Reynolds’s Discourses, he aimed to bring a new seriousness to British art by producing historical and religious work in the Grand Manner and through them to educate and improve public taste. His life, which was punctuated by bankruptcy, imprisonment, and disputes with patrons, was a story of bombastic frustration and stubborn opposition to the establishment (particularly the Royal Academy), as he fought continuously for personal recognition and argued for the social purpose of art.
However, his talents fell far short of his lofty ambitions, his multi-figure compositions degenerating into turgid melodrama. His great monument, rather, is the massive collection of autobiographical writings he left behind him (various editions have been published), which gives fascinating insights into the contemporary artistic scene and paints a vividly detailed picture of his disturbed mind and tragicomical life. He was closely linked with the Romantic movement in literature, particularly with William Wordsworth, who wrote a sonnet to him, and with John Keats, painting portraits of both of them (NPG, London), and but for his lack of talent he would exemplify all the traits traditionally ascribed to the Romantic concept of genius. In true Romantic fashion his death came by suicide.
born Plymouth, 26 Jan. 1786
died London, 22 June 1846
Benjamin Robert Haydon Paintings
Mary, Queen of Scots When an Infant 1842
The Duke of Wellington Describing the Field of Waterloo to HM George IV 1840
Miss Mary Russell Mitford (1787–1855) 1824
Thomas Alcock (1784–1833) c.1825
Curtius Leaping into the Gulf 1842
Napoleon Bonapartec.1830Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786–1846)
The Anti-Slavery Society Convention, 1840-1841
Wordsworth on Helvellyn c.1843
Christ Blessing the Little Children c.1837
Milton and His Daughters at the Organ c.1839
Alexander the Great (356–323 BC), Taming Bucephalus 1826/1827
Henrietta Nelson Noble c.1830–1835
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