Benjamin Robert Haydon’s letters to the Duke of Sutherland

Description:Haydon’s letters to George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1786-1861), the second Duke of Sutherland, are full of detail about his paintings and his financial difficulties. In a letter dated 1835 Haydon refers to a ‘picture’ which he was painting for the Duke and his wife Duchess Harriet. Haydon writes that he hopes to have the picture ‘complete’ by Christmas, but has ‘been very anxious’ about ‘the Back-ground’ of the painting. He comments that the background ‘must be made to help the story’. Haydon describes the ‘moral’ of the story being portrayed as ‘the uncertainty of human victory’, and ‘approaching evil at the instant of greatest triumph’.

Haydon’s letter provides a graphic description of the painting. Describing the background he tells the Duke it will be all ‘gay & triumphant’ with ‘trumpets sounding’ and ‘people cheering’. The King in the painting would be ‘exulting’, but another figure named ‘Cassandra’ would be present in the painting ‘pointing to the dark entrance, in which is dimly seen the face of a Fury, malignant & anticipating over the Kings head’. Haydon adds that he has ‘put a raven’ into the picture ‘fluttering and ominous’. He comments that the Duke will ‘not know the picture’ having only seen ‘the first conception’.

After describing his work, Haydon moves on to ‘business’ issues. The Duke had ‘advanced’ Haydon fifty pounds for the sketch of the painting which would ‘be considered a portion of the price of the picture’. However, Haydon suggests that ‘it would be interesting’ for the Duke to own the sketch as a separate work ‘because the sketch is different’.

Haydon was evidently suffering from financial difficulties, as he asks the Duke to ‘advance’ him one hundred and twenty pounds, noting that if he received the money he would ‘wind up the picture in a state of happiness of mind hardly to be described’. He promises the Duke that he shall ‘never’ appeal to him again ‘on such matters’, concluding that he will ‘trust in God’ that he shall ‘have nothing to do for the rest of my days but paint my conceptions as well and as fast as I can’.