B. R. HAYDON.

Otago Witness, Issue 2722, 16 May 1906, Page 69

B. R. HAYDON.

— Painter and Suicide. —

The career of B. R. Haydon i=s a practical pennon upon the evil of recklebb lanity and impossible ideals. Haydon was a man of sanguine temper and untiring energy, and had lie been gifted with some ??n-.c of humour and proportion, he might have won the glory and honour for wh'ch. ho thirsted. But he would not hav-e won ttie glory and honour as a historical painter. He would ha\e chosen some pursuit be-tt-cr filtod to his disposition; he might, for instance have been a man of letters; and ho v oil Id xhen .have been saved the misery or curing his many troubles by suicide. Few men were ever less adapted to rival Raphael and Michael Angelo rhan Haydon. Ho had neither the talent nor the training fo- the enterprise. Ho suffered ?o acutely from hi' eyes a-s to be almost blind. TV r •vo eirong «a« his ambition that he made light of all obstacles. \Vhen his friendin scorn. "How can you think of becoming a painter? Why. you can't see!" "See or not st c " he replied, "a painter I'll be ; and if I am a great one without seeing, I shall be the fiist." No arauments, then, could di-euade him; a paintrr he would he ; and ho went to London witli very little money in his pocket, a.nd a strong determination never to sink so low as to paint a portrait. From the beginning to the end of his unfortunate career he was possessed with a firm belief that painting should be dramatic and emotional ; or that, in other words, it should attempt to achieve the work cl poetry- He was equal!} sure that a small canvas was a sin against, the nobility of his art. and he never felt that he w.i* loyally fulfilling his ambition if he were not standing before a vast space, presently to be filled with the creatures of his fancy It is not strange that with prejudices such as these he did not always find the <».".th of success ea-?y. But, in order that he might wantonly increase his difficulties, he "quarrelled loudly and bitterly with hi-> patrons and his colleagues ; indeed, even if he had not attempted a task which was far beyond his power, he would have been beset by hardships and disappointments. The tact which might have softened opposition was never his. and with perfect honesty of soul h* would always rather lose a friend that not 'ndulge a scruple.

But if Haydcn *a=; the victim of a faloe ambition, he had one quality which always ser\ed him in good stead. It is clear that he had the power of winning the attachment of all sorts of men. ''hat he was an admirable talker is certain ir'jJit hi, friends. Keat« and Lamb, Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt, Wordswoith and Coleridge, would not have ?..«ociated with a dullard. At the moment of liis highest prosperity he- counted among his visitors half the peerage. Lord •Mulgraie and Lord Grey wore among his patrons. He tells vs — and there is no reason to disbelieve him — that Lord Melbourne, in some respects the cleverest man of hie age, was delighted with his company. He held his own in the cultivated society which gathered about Lady Blessington and Count d'OrEay ; and wo can well believe, when we read l-i«s autobiography, that he was a copious and brilliant talker. But it was not merely 9mong the great that he exercised the cl.arm ojf his personality. The landlords and tradc-smon, whose bills he never paid. wpie eager 1o forgive hK delinquencies and to help him with money. Though now and again some creditor of inhuman har-h-n^ss threw him into the Fleet, he was more often assisted in his hour of need by thcee

who Tnvst have known- that their ch&nec-ol payment was almost hopeless. Ha-ydon had not been long in London before he fell into the hands of moneylenders, and no man was ever cleverer at the shifts which lack of money necessitates. Ho .had a rare head for finance, and) though he borrowed at exorbitant interest to repay old debts,,- he managed his army of creditors with singular adroitness. Hero is one of his exploits, deecribed in his own words: — "Jn an hour and- a-half," he \.rote on a certain day in 1843,* " I had £10 to pay upon honour, and only £2 "15s in my pocket. I drove away to Newton, paid him £2 15s, and borrowed £10. I then drove a. way- to my friend, paid him the £10, and borrowed £5 more r but .felfc relieved I had not broke 'my honoitr." He had done more than save his honour. He . had turned £2 15s into £5, • and it was in this spirit that he always settled th© financial difficulties which dogged him through life. But until the last catastrophe which drove • him to destroy himself lie seems never to have "lost heart. The smallest commission for an historical painting convinced him" that th© triumph of h*is* principles was at hand.. -Even when h^.-wds carried off to gaol he made - the best of his unhappy situation^ "WelL 1^ $m inprison !'-i^ , saick he. jT^Sa .vy/ere^ -Bacon. Saleigh,--'and ' Cervantes^ Vanifrrf'^aniftf !" HereV a- consolation !" ~ v ■ - "" " .;For so long" did" lie ' make ligfit of -Hs, misfortunes "that his suicide is~thfe "tnbT,€» rSin'atkable. On M&y Iff; 1846, -he ciosad his ..last exhibition, haying- lost £111 *8« -lOd. "Next to victory," he wrote, . "is. a skilful retreat, and I marched,. out before. General Tom Thumb, ,a beaten But ,'ribfc cohquereidi exhibitor.'" • "A itiohtn" later-he" was' dead, having written m"^tKe"Mst"iirie^of his'jourrial these pathetic words : "Srreich me i.o longer on this tough world." At la6t a cloud of depression had fallen upon him from whioh he could not pmerge. At lasfe hio brave heart had broken at the thoughts of defeat and the prospect of beggary. And there are few bitterer tragedies recorded in history than the sacrifice cf this courageous man, who fell v victim to his own- vanity and lack of judgment. Though Haydon was never ablo to- free himself from debt, he found some .small compensation in the flattery of his friend*?. Few msn were so highly praised, so fifencvouely belauded. The greatest poets addressed sonnets to hie name. ' In v all sincerity Keati helievcd him the .greatest genius of his time. "Wordsworth never wavered in "his faith ; and though Lamb saw through the man's infirmity, he ■fepoke well of his paintings unto the end- What v» e-re they, tnen, those masterpiece* of history? And,. where "are they "gone? Where; ■« c wonder, is the f ampus V Mock Election," which Geoge IV declared to f-^Jk "d : d ftno thing," and botfghfc for 50? V guineas 1 ? These are -the questions which tKe.MograpllfeVof B£y"dbh' ought- to -anttfer. Maybe they^iave all I 'been "-painted ouf-Cor hustled away into- attics. -But they are worth' recovery, if recovery be possible, for the mere sake ot. curiosity. -Hovßev-er,! Haydon was •fn.r'V.Breaie. -.tkiA hi=» pictures,—^teat" in his life"* ih , the" *aen«6 that Don Quixote is great; great also_' i* . his autobiography, which is a masterpicee of 6elf-re vocation. And : if he ■ xsoiild ' not achieve the heroic in his art,- he- knew the heroic when he saw it, and" it was partly due to his advocacy that- Engknd secured the Elgin Marbles.— Spectator.- ,