Haydon's Paitings

Description:Another letter from Haydon, probably from 1836-7, offers the Duke ‘the refusal’ of a picture which he had sent to ‘The Times’. Haydon describes the picture as featuring ‘an old John Bull’ sitting by ‘a good fire, at breakfast’. John Bull was to wear his dressing gown and to have ‘a paper spread over his knees’, brandishing ‘a knife & fork in his hands’ and ‘a large slice of cold beef on his fork’. John Bull would be painted addressing his two children ‘saying fiercely “We are a ruined nation”'. Haydon’s letter includes a pen sketch of the painting and a description of the background of the painting as ‘a room full of comforts’. Haydon had already painted John Bull’s head and eagerly offers to ‘send it down’ to the Duke and Duchess. Haydon comments that ‘if the Times’ amused the Duke’s friends then the painting would, suggesting that it had kept him ‘laughing’ since he began working on it.