Benjamin Robert Haydon.

Benjamin Robert Haydon.

I
Haydon, thine was a truly noble soul!

B. R Haydon

The Painter’s Art, above all price to thee,
Was prized as gift to raise humanity.
No sordid love of gain could e’er control
Thy gifted pencil. All the beautiful 5
For thee had charms above or rank or gold;
Thy soul was truly loving, pure, and bold;
The world to highest merit blindly dull
That could not clearly its own interest see
To free thy mind from every worldly care. 10
Bravely thy battled; though at last Despair
One fatal moment o’ercame Industry,
Genius and Goodness: yet I content would be
To share thy cruel fate could I half-equal thee!


II
And yet, methinks, great weakness was in thee 15
In running into many a needless debt,
Causing thy soul unnecessary fret
When calm was needed. ’T was not Poverty,
But wild extravagance, which thy didst ape.
From these rich men who ask’d thee out to dine, 20
Which caused much misery to that mind of thine,
From which frugality had been escape.
Many great artists in less gains than those
Which thou wert favour’d with, have been content,
And thank’d great Goodness that so much was sent 25
To enable them on Painting to repose
Calmly for bread and fame. Yea, such as thou
Never unto Despair should for one moment bow.

George Markham Tweddell
p. 52 to line 19 and completed on p. 78 [in Miscellaneous Sonnets]
[*(1786-1846). English Romantic painter, teacher and writer.
In line 28 ‘false Pride’ is offered to ‘Despair’ as an alternative.]

The Anti-Slavery Society Convention, 1840 (1841) - Haydon

Haydon - Napoleon  Bonaparte 1830

William Wordsworth - Haydon

http://19thcenturybritpaint.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/benjamin-robert-haydon.html

"Benjamin Robert Haydon ; 26 January 1786 – 22 June 1846) was an English painter, specialising in grand historical pictures, although he also painted a few contemporary subjects and, with some reluctance, portraits. His commercial success was damaged by his often tactless dealings with patrons, and by the enormous scale on which he preferred to work. He was troubled by financial problems throughout his life, which led to several periods of imprisonment for debt. He committed suicide in 1846.

He gave lectures on art, and kept extensive diaries, which were published after his death."
Read more on Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Haydon