HAYDON. [See also Heydon.]
HAYDON, BENJAMIN ROBERT (1786–1846), historical painter, born in Wimpole Street, Plymouth, on 26 Jan. 1786, was son of a printer and publisher, who came of an old Devonshire family. His mother, Sarah Cobley, was the daughter of the Rev. B. Cobley, curate of Shillingford, and afterwards rector of Dodbrooke. Both his father and grandfather were fond of painting. When six years old Benjamin was sent to the grammar school at Plymouth under Dr. Bidlake, who encouraged him to sketch from nature; and a Neapolitan named Fenzi, employed by his father as a bookbinder, excited his imagination by describing the works of Raphael and Michel Angelo, and urged him to draw the figure. At an early age he showed great independence and determination of mind, combined with a desire for distinction. He gave dramatic entertainments to his schoolfellows in the drawing-room, and shut himself up in the attic to paint and lecture to himself. He was allowed to read the books in his father's shop, and showed a preference for the lives of ambitious men. His father, seeing the need for severer discipline, sent him in 1798 to the grammar school at Plympton, where he remained under the Rev. W. Haynes till 1801. He rose to be head boy, and acquired a fair knowledge of Latin, Greek, and French. While there he indulged his love of art by copying caricatures and adorning the hall with a spirited hunting scene drawn with burnt sticks. He also taught his schoolfellows drawing, and tried his hand at etching. After six months with an accountant at Exeter, he was bound apprentice to his father, but his ambition to be a painter was not to be conquered. An attack of inflammation of the eyes, which left a permanent dimness of sight, did not discourage him, and after three years of rebellion, during which he studied anatomy from Albinus, and insulted his father's customers, he started on 13 May 1804, with 20l. in his pocket, for ‘London, Sir Joshua, drawing, dissection, and high art.’
He determined to devote himself to study for two years before he began to paint. He took lodgings at 3 Broad Street, Carnaby Market, and next day visited the exhibition of the Royal Academy at Somerset House. Satisfied that he need fear no rival in historical painting, he straightway bought some plaster casts, and began drawing from the round. He did not deliver his cards of introduction, but remained for several months before he knew any one in London except Prince Hoare, who introduced him to Fuseli and Northcote. From these as well as from Opie and Smirke he sought advice, but he determined to do without a master, and went on attending the Academy schools and Charles Bell's lectures on anatomy, working sometimes twelve or fourteen hours a day till more than the two years were over. He attained a certain predominance among the students of the Academy, and made friends with Wilkie and Jackson.
On 1 Oct. 1806 he began his first picture, ‘Joseph and Mary resting on the Road to Egypt.’ This was one of the least ambitious in a list of thirty-eight subjects which he had drawn up before or very shortly after he came to London. He chose a canvas six feet by four, and finished the picture in six months. During its progress Sir George and Lady Beaumont called upon him, and he was introduced to Lord Mulgrave, who gave him a commission for a picture of ‘Dentatus.’ The ‘Joseph and Mary’ was hung on the line at the Academy, and bought by Thomas Hope of Deepdene for a hundred guineas. Success also attended him at Plymouth, where he went to see his father, who was ill, and to paint portraits, for practice as a preparation for ‘Dentatus,’ at fifteen guineas apiece. Before he returned to town his mother died. He found it difficult to realise his heroic ideal of ‘Dentatus’ until Wilkie took him to see the Elgin marbles, then recently arrived at Lord Elgin's house in Park Lane. There seems to be no doubt that he was the first to see their extraordinary merit, and on returning home he ‘dashed out the abominable mass’ of his ‘Dentatus,’ and ‘breathed as if relieved from a nuisance.’ He obtained permission to draw from the marbles, and for three months worked at them ten, fourteen, and sometimes fifteen hours at a time. ‘Dentatus’ was painted in and out many times before it was completed in March 1809. During its progress his painting-room was crowded with admirers, among whom was Charles (afterwards Sir Charles) Eastlake [q. v.], his first pupil, and he was introduced by Lord Mulgrave into the most distinguished society, where he was flattered and hailed as the reviver of art.
The picture was hung in the octagon room at the Academy, an act which was regarded by Haydon as an insult. Lord Mulgrave, to console him, sent him a cheque for fifty or sixty guineas, in addition to its price of one hundred, but his fair-weather friends deserted
