1235. Benjamin Robert Haydon to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 114.
London
May 6th 1843
My sweetest Friend /
Your letter has done more good, than bottles of physic– I trust in God, she will weather it, the dear Girl. I reproach myself, for my too great pressure on all their budding Intellects—making no allowance for their age– She never spits—blood or any thing else—she has no pain in her side—but she wastes—has no relish for food or existence!– I trust in God—she is my only daughter—& was a splendid Girl—as fine a figure as ever moved!– Mary is dreadfully affected—your letter has delighted them both– I think if you would write 20 lines to—to Mrs Haydon yourself it would be a great balm—and my daughter too– It would please them.
Are you inclined to see a Comic Picture of Mine in the midst of Alexander “The first Child [1] very like about the eyes, & not so like about the nose–” These are the darts sorrow shoots out of the mind [2] —Antony says.
I sat yesterday to a Man who kept me 2 hours & half without painting a touch—measuring, sticking compass into nose, chin, & forehead and thinks himself a Genius[.] [3]
I am delighted you are not worse for your first move–
Your living is a miracle which ought to support the dying–
God bless you
B R Haydon
Miss B. Barrett
Address: Miss B. Barrett / 50 Wimpole St.
Publication: EBB-BRH, pp. 94–95.
Manuscript: University of Vermont.
1. Haydon had exhibited “The First Child” in 1832, but, as he so often did, was now painting a second version of the subject. His diary entry for 4 May 1843 read: “Worked on my Comic Picture of the first Child, & put in a glorious head of the Nurse” (Pope, V, 270).
2. Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, IV, 2, 14–15.
3. Although Haydon identified the artist in his diary, the name was obliterated at some point. Haydon commented that “His loss of time & twaddle were dreadful” (Pope, V, 271). The artist may have been Thomas Henry Illidge (1799–1851), who painted the last-known portrait of Haydon (see EBB-BRH, frontispiece).
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