HAYDON, BENJAMIN ROBERT English historical painter and writer, was born at Plymouth on Jan. 26, 1786. His mother was the daughter of Benjamin Cobley, rector of Dodbrook, Devon. His father, a prosperous printer, stationer and publisher, was a man of literary taste. Haydon became a student at the Royal Academy in 1804. In 1807 he exhibited, for the first time "The Repose in Egypt." In 1809 he finished his well-known picture of "Dentatus." He had great ambitions which involved him in great difficulties, and in a quarrel with the Royal Academy. "The Judgment of Solomon" (1814) gained him a prize from the British Institution, and the freedom of the borough of Plymouth. Haydon then joined his friend Wilkie in a trip to Paris ; he studied at the Louvre; and on his return to England produced his "Christ's Entry into Jerusalem," which afterwards formed the nucleus of the American gallery of painting, erected by his cousin, John Havi land of Philadelphia.
As a result of his pecuniary difficulties in 1823 Haydon was lodged in the King's Bench, where he received consoling letters from the first men of the day. Whilst a prisoner he drew up a petition to parliament in favour of the appointment of "a com mittee to inquire into the state of encouragement of historical painting," which was presented by Brougham. He also, during a second imprisonment in 1827, produced the picture of the "Mock Election," the idea of which had been suggested by an incident that happened in the prison. The king (George IV.) gave him £500 for this work. Among Haydon's other pictures were "Punch" (1829), "Lazarus" (1821-23) in the possession of the Tate gallery, and the "Meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society," in the National Portrait Gallery. When the competition took place at Westminster Hall, Haydon sent two cartoons, "The Curse of Adam" and "Edward the Black Prince," but he was not allowed a prize for either. The artist's difficulties increased to such an extent that, whilst employed on his last effort, "Alfred and the Trial by Jury," overcome by debt and disappointment he wrote "Stretch me no longer on this rough world," and put an end to his existence with a pistol-shot, on June 22, 1846.
See: Haydon's Autobiography and Journals (5847), of which a new edition (2 vols.) was published, with introd. by Aldous Huxley, in 1926; Tom Taylor, Life of B. R. Haydon (1853) ; F. W. Haydon, Correspondence and Table Talk (1876) ; Haydon published a pam phlet on Fresco and Oil Painting (1842) and Lectures on Painting and Design (1847) ; he was also the author of the article on PAINTING in the 7th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica.