1617. Benjamin Robert Haydon to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 8, 320–321.
London
May 31 1844
Mary Mitford is a Darling for not going to Cockney Jersey—with namby pamby wine, fresh Sea, & no East Winds to brace her.
I am painting Uriel & Satan [1]
There’s for ye!—you darling Poetess!– I am printing my lectures—& have just read first proof[.] [2] I’ll be hanged if the Sketch other side is not finer than the Picture—and I shall absolutely alter from it—if I want it for a morning—let me have it—not unless I ask—
My sweetest Mary is well & my daughter moving towards recovery–
Do let me see your 1st Vol. as soon as you can–
I am My dearest Friend
B R Haydon
No pain in Earth is or can be as severe as the raptures of Genius on Abstraction, are delightful. Is it not true?
Publication: EBB-BRH, pp. 176–177.
Manuscript: University of Vermont.
1. Item no. 163 in Pope’s checklist, there identified as “Uriel Revealing Himself to Satan,” was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1845; it was purchased by Edward N. Dennys for 200 guineas (Pope, V, 599).
2. The first volume of Lectures on Painting and Design appeared in 1844. A second volume was published in 1846.
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