Correspondence and Table-Talk: With a Memoir by his Son

Artist, diarist, and devotee of the Elgin Marbles, Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846) is best known for his large-scale paintings, such as Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem and The Raising of Lazarus. After he entered the Royal Academy in 1805 as a student of Henry Fuseli, his forthright views and combative manner fuelled a feud with the institution and perceived enemies. His unshakeable belief in his own genius and his unwillingness to compromise his artistic standards drew him ever further into debt, which ultimately contributed to his suicide. As a writer, Haydon’s acute eye for the humorous is demonstrated throughout his correspondence and diary. In this two-volume work, first published in 1876, his son Frederick Wordsworth Haydon (1827-86) brings together letters and extracts from his father’s journals. Volume 1 opens with Frederick’s biography of his father, followed by general correspondence to and from many eminent figures of the age.