Haydon, Benjamin Robert
Haydon, Benjamin Robert ( 1786 – 1846 ),a historical painter but best known for his posthumously published Autobiography and Journals (selections ed. Tom Taylor , 1853 ; complete text in 5 vols, ed. W. B. Pope , 1960 , 1963 ). Haydon , son of a Plymouth bookseller, at first had some success with his large paintings of biblical and classical subjects, but quarrelled with most of his patrons, fell deeply in debt, and finally committed suicide. His vigorous advocacy helped to secure the Elgin Marbles for the British Museum, and his pioneering theories on art education, industrial design, and state patronage of the arts, expressed in his Lectures on Painting and Design ( 1846 ), had much influence. He was a friend of Keats , Wordsworth , Hazlitt , Leigh Hunt , M. R. Mitford , and Elizabeth Barrett ( Browning ), and his vivid and vehement journals contain many interesting...
[The entire page is 209 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
