1136. Benjamin Robert Haydon to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 6, 303–305.
[London]
Tuesday Night. Jan 24. 1843
Dear Miss Barrett,
Your flattering interest in my Memoirs, is very delightful– I have written no more consecutively—but you encourage me—should the year & dates be given—would it make it clearer?—you are coming to the beginning of the anxieties of my Life–
Sir George refused Macbeth after 3 years labor—relying on his honor I borrowed to complete it[.] By his refusal, I lost the great prize to which I was entitled 300 gs—his price 500 gs—and at 26 years of age I am disappointed of 800 gs which would have established my fortune! [1] —from that hour to this my life has been a long struggle.
Dentatus the Academy placed in the great Room where it looked powerfully– They removed it to the dark––ruined me with my Patrons[.] The next year I sent it to the Gallery where it won the great prize—and again I was the fashion!! [2]
Sir George when Solomon came out [3] gave me another order of 200 gs– I told him to take Macbeth for 200 gs. which he did—hung it up where he said he had not room for it—he lent it to me for Exhibition with my other Works– It was the only Picture seized in my ruin [4] —& he spent 360—in a Chancery suit to keep it!—saying no compensation in money would compensate your orator, for such a work of art!—a Work he refused! To the day of his Death it haunted him—& the last letter he ever wrote to Lord Farnborough, [5] one whole side was devoted to giving a high opinion of me—the day after he died!– [6] Poor dear Sir George— with no Man have I spent more delightful days—he was my bane & my blessing—had he kept his word I should never have been embarrassed! no Man had brighter prospects—no Man had been less offensive but this abominable treatment exasperated my nature—and I became a fierce ungovernable leader of forlorn hopes!–
I will continue my life—— Dissenter or Democrat it is no matter to me—but Monarchy will be the ruling Government of the Earth in the long run—and if you do not believe in the Divinity of Christ—I wish you did[.]
God bless you
B R Haydon
Miss B Barrett–
Address: Miss B. Barrett / 50. Wimpole St
Publication: EBB-BRH, pp. 24–25.
Manuscript: University of Vermont.
1. Sir George Howland Beaumont (1753–1827) was one of Haydon’s earliest patrons and was himself an amateur landscape painter. In 1807, he gave Haydon a commission, the agreed subject being Macbeth, but either because of a misunderstanding over its size, or because he was seeking to escape from the commitment, he criticized the painting at every stage of its composition. (For a detailed account of the affair, see Haydon, I, ch. IX.) Although he did finally accept the painting, he paid Haydon only 200 guineas instead of the 500 originally agreed. However, he had nothing to do with the loss of “the great prize” of 300 guineas; the first and second prizes were withdrawn by the British Institution to provide the funds for the purchase of Richter’s “Christ Healing the Blind” (Haydon, I, 176).
2. “The Assassination of Dentatus” was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1809, placed first in the Great Room but later moved to an anteroom (Haydon, I, 113). In May 1810 the British Institution awarded it a prize of 100 guineas.
3. “The Judgment of Solomon” was exhibited at the Water-Colour Society in 1814.
4. In May 1823, when Haydon was imprisoned for debt, the sheriff’s officers appropriated his assets, including “Macbeth,” which was on loan to him for exhibition.
5. Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough (1761–1838), held office in several Tory administrations.
6. Sir George died on 7 February 1827.
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