Part 3 (1/2)

During the remainder of the year, Haydon worked steadily, and finished his picture On December 2 he notes: 'It is noenty-seven years since I ordered --twenty-six The whole world was against ht hich Iin God, as I always do When one is once i like it It has carried ot it; I do not think wo, having spent it all to recover her health She said to me, ”What are we to do,like a smile on her face The very next day came the order for 400 from Liverpool, and ever since I have been employed' Alas, poor Mary!

who had been chiefly occupied in bearing children and burying them, that must have been rather athe first part of 1840, Haydon see, the only picture on the stocks being a sers In February he was enabled to carry out one of the dreams of his life, namely, the delivery of a series of lectures upon art in the Ashe of the Vice-Chancellor The experiment was a triumphant success, and he exclaiht I to be at being per the first to break down the barrier which has kept art begging to be heard at the Universities' He describes the occasion as one of the four chief honours of his life, the other three being Wordsworth's sonnet, 'High is our calling,' the freedoiven in his honour at Edinburgh

On March 14 he arrived ho (like the Vicar of Wakefield) every blessing--expectingabout my neck, and welco I should be home till dinner I then walked into town, and when I returned she was at hoator happy

So much for anticipations of human happiness!'

On June 12,1840, Haydon notes: 'Excessively excited and exhausted I attended the great Convention of the Anti-Slavery Society at Freemasons' Hall Last Wednesday a deputation called onthey wished for a sketch of the scene ThePoor old Clarkson was present, with delegates from America, and other parts of the world' A few days later, Haydon breakfasted with Clarkson, and sketched hinant humanity' In less than a week fifty heads were dashed in, the picture, when finished, containing no fewer than a hundred and thirty-eight; in fact, as the artist reard of natural history, it was all heads, like a peacock's tail

Haydon took ato his sitters that he should place the his test of their sincerity Thus he notes on June 30: 'Scobell called I said, ”I shall place you, Thoether” Now an abolitionist, on thorough principle, would have gloried in being so placed He sophisticated iro in the distance, as it would have reater effect Lloyd Garrison comes to-day I'll try hi the real heart Garrison e Thoh A ro on a level with hi been a slave, and feel annoyed at sitting by his side'

A visit to Clarkson at Playford Hall, Ipswich, was an interesting experience Clarkson told the story of his vision, and the ht voice that said 'You have not done your work There is America'

Haydon had been a believer all his life in such spiritual communications, and declares, 'I have been so acted on fro and refining reat country in art'

In 1841 the Fine Arts Committee appointed to consider the question of the decoration of the new Houses of Parliament, sat to examine witnesses, but Haydon was not suht which he deeply felt With an anxious heart he set aboutexperiarded as his success in this new line of endeavour During the past year, the Anti-Slavery Convention picture, and one or two small commissions, had kept his head above water, but now the clouds were beginning to gather again, his difficulties being greatly increased by the fact that he had two sons to start in the world The eldest, Frank, had been apprenticed, at his oish, to an engineering fir of his chosen profession, he desired to take orders, and, as a university career was considered a necessary prelie, Cae The second son, Frederick, Haydon fitted out for the navy, and in order to meet these heavy extra expenses, he was coht of the 'Duke at Waterloo' for a wholly inadequate su of 1842 the Fine Arts Commission issued a notice of the conditions for the cartoon competition, intended to test the capacity of native artists for the decoration of the House of Lords The joy hich Haydon welcomed this first step towards the object which he had been advocating throughout the whole of his working life, wasthat he would not be allowed to share the fruits of victory When he had first begun his crusade, he had felt himself without a rival in his own branch of art, not one of his contee of anato on a grand scale But noas fifty-six years old, there were youngeron who had been trained in the principles of his own school, and he was painfully aware that he had h places Still, in spite of all forebodings, he continued his researches in fresco-painting, and wrote veheainst the threatened e this year Haydon orking intere pictures, 'Alexander conquering the Lion,' 'Curtius leaping into the Gulf,' and the 'Siege of Saragossa,' for the days were long past when one grand composition occupied hi at the door is evidenced by the entry for February 6 'I got up yesterday, after lying awake for several hours with all the old feelings of torture at want ofdue of 44 for my boy Frank at Caius Three commissions for 700 put off till next year My dear Mary's health broken up I knew if my debt to the tutor of Caius was not paid, the mind of my son Frank would be destroyed, fro third-year men, I dreaded any check' In these straits he hastily painted one or two small pot-boilers, borrowed, deferred, pawned his wife's watch, and had the satisfaction of bringing his son home 'crowned as first-prize man in mathematics' For one as in the toils of thefrom hand to ive his son a university career, , either as a proof of presumptuous folly or of childlike trust in Providence

As soon as his pictures were off his hands, Haydon began his competition cartoons of 'The Curse of Ada John into London' He felt that it was beneath his dignity as a painter of recognised standing to co to lose, but in his present necessities the chance of winning one of the lected In the absence of any lucrative e his lay-figure, and borrowing off his butterreatest curse that can befall a father in England is to have a son gifted with a passion and a genius for high art Thank God with all my soul and all onies under which I have ever painted, and the very naives them a hideous taste in their irl, can draw a straight line, even with a ruler, much less without one'

In the course of this year Haydon began a correspondence with Miss Barrett, afterwards Mrs Browning, hoh he knew her through her poeh the allusions to her in the letters of their common friend, Miss Mitford

The paper friendshi+p flourished for a tinised that here was a little Donna Quixote whose chivalry could be depended on in time of trouble More than once, when threatened with arrest, he sent her paintings and e with subliht be placing herself within reach of the aruardianshi+p was an unfinished portrait of 'Wordsworthupon Helvellyn' Miss Barrett was inspired by this ith the sonnet beginning:

'Wordsworth upon Helvellyn! Let the cloud Ebb audibly along thewith the fine tribute:

'A vision free And noble, Haydon, hath thine art released

No portrait this with academic air, This is the poet and his poetry'

The year 1843 brought, as Haydon's biographer points out, 'the consuht for, a competition of native artists to prove their capability for executing great monumental and decorative works; but with this ca the successful coles up to this point, Haydon had the consolation of hope that better tiood time for art was at hand, and he was passed over The blow fell heavily--indeed, I may say, was mortal He tried to cheat himself into the belief that the old hostile influences to which he attributed all hishere also, and that he should yet rise superior to their malice He would not admit to himself that his poere ireat achievements in his art than he had been when he painted Solomon and Lazarus But if he held this opinion, he held it alone It was apparent to all, even to his warmest friends, that years of harass, huies, and led hier attain by well-measured force His restless desire to have a hand in all that was projected for art, had wearied those in authority He had shown himself too intractable to follow, and he had not inspired that confidence which h Haydon loudly proclaiainst hih they were as perfect as Raphael's, yet it is obvious that he had not altogether relinquished hope In a letter to his old pupil, Eastlake, as secretary to the Fine Arts Commission, he says: 'I appeal to the Royal Commission, to the First Lord, to you the secretary, to Barry the architect, if I ought not to be indulged in ht to do this, viz, that when the houses are ready, cartoons done, colours mixed, and all at their posts, I shall be allowed, _employed_ or _not employed_, to take the brush, and dip into the _first_ colour, and put the _first_ touch on the _first_ intonaco If that is not granted, I'll haunt every noble Lord and you, till you join my disturbed spirit on the banks of the Styx'

On June 1, Haydon placed his two cartoons in Westminster Hall, and thanked his God that he had lived to see that day, adding with unconscious blaspheth unto this generation, thy power unto that which is to come'

Thehis certainty of failure, did not happen On June 27 he heard fro those chosen for reward

Half stunned by the blow, anticipated though it had been, he makes but few comments on the news in his Journal, and those are written in a coht in a decent state of anxiety,' he observes 'It has given a great shock to my family, especially to my dear boy, Frank, and revived all the old horrors of arrest, execution, and debt It is exactly what I expected, and is, I think, intentional I a ill froreat misery I said to my dear love, ”I am not included” Her expression was a study

She said, ”We shall be ruined” I looked up my letters, papers, and Journals, and sent them to my dear AEschylus Barrett I burnt loads of private letters, and prepared for executions Seven pounds was raised on hter's and Mary's dresses'

The three e, Cope, and Watts, but it was announced that another co year, when the successful competitors would be intrusted with the decoration of the House of Lords Haydon did not enter for this competition, but, as will presently appear, he refused to allow that he was beaten On September 4 he removed his cartoons from Westminster Hall, with the comment: 'Thus ends the cartoon contest; and as the very first inventor and beginner of thisthe people when they were pronounced incapable of relishi+ng refined works of art without colour, I am deeply wounded at the insult inflicted These Journals witness under what trials I began the--how I trusted in Hiraded, insulted, and harassed O Lord! Thou knowest best I sub the year Haydon had finished his picture of 'Alexander and the Lion,' which he considered one of his finest works, though the British Gallery declined to hang it, and no patron offered to buy it He had also painted for bread and cheese innumerable small replicas of 'Napoleon at St Helena' and the 'Duke at Waterloo' for five guineas apiece By the beginning of 1844 his spirits had outwardly revived, thanks to the anodyne of incessant labour, and he writes almost in the old buoyant vein: 'Another day of work, God be thanked! Put in the sea [in ”Napoleon at St Helena”]; a delicious tint How exquisite is a bare canvas, sized alone, to work on; how the slightest colour, thin as water, tells; how it glitters in body; how the brush flies--now here--now there; it seeht, poetry, and expression were hid in the handle, and streaic! what fire! what unerring hand and eye! what power!

what a gift of God! I bow, and arateful' On March 24 he cans for the House of Lords in a series of six large pictures, and exhibit them separately, a decision founded, as he believed, on supernatural inspiration

'Awoke this ,' he writes, 'with that sort of audible whisper Socrates, Coluns for the House on your own foundation, and exhibit the permitted to do them else, without control also I knelt up in ht be the obstruction I will begin thereat works; I feel as if they will be my last, and I think I shall then have done ression, and conclusion of these six great designs to illustrate the best governies of mankind'

In July the frescoes sent in for competition were exhibited in Westminster Hall, and in the result six artists were corave, Dyce, Cope, Horsley, and Thomas 'I see,' writes Haydon, 'they are resolved that I, the originator of the whole sche in the great God who has brought in on my own inventions without employment' The first of the series was 'Aristides hooted by the Populace,' and the conditions under which it was painted are described in his annual review of the year's work: 'I have painted a large Napoleon in four days and a half, six smaller different subjects, three Curtiuses, five Napoleons Musing, three Dukes and Copenhagens, George IV, and the Duke at Waterloo--half done Uriel--published ave lectures at Liverpool, sometimes twice a day, and lectured at the Royal Institution I have not been idle, but how ht have done!'

In 1845 Haydon exhibited his picture of 'Uriel and Satan' at the Academy, and 'after twenty-two years of abuse,' actually received a favourable notice in the _Times_, For the Uriel he was paid 200, but five other pictures re to nearly a thousand pounds, and he was left to work at his _Aristides_ with barely ten shi+llings for current expenses, and not a single commission in prospect 'What a pity it is,' he observes, 'that a enius [in the Journal a private note is here inserted, ”not _perhaps_”], is not employed