Haydon, Money, and Art

Description:In a letter from December 1836 Haydon describes his situation in more detail. He explains to the Duke that his friends had ‘offered to pay me out of troubles, by discharging the debt for which I had been arrested’. Haydon had ‘refused’ their offer and ‘gave securities to get time’ to pay his debts, using the advanced payments the Duke had made for his painting Cassandra. Unfortunately, Haydon had lost a number of commissions with which he had anticipated ‘being entirely clear’ from debt. Haydon informs the Duke that he was ‘utterly destitute of property of every description’, his household furniture belonging entirely to his Landlord. He describes himself as ‘worse off than at 18 years old’.

Haydon’s letter also alludes to his antagonistic relationship with contemporary artist Martin Archer Shee. He writes that an ‘allusion’ made about his works by Shee had given him ‘great pain’. Shee’s allusion had been to comments made by Haydon about ‘Royal distinctions’ made by portrait painters. Haydon states in his letter to the Duke that he ‘would abolish all distinctions which the Portrait Painters have the power of bestowing’ and goes into more depth about this argument in artistic and political terms. He suggests that Shee’s comments have threatened his career as he ‘solely’ depends ‘on the nobility’ for the heads of people in his paintings. Haydon concludes his letter, arguing that Shee had ‘made English art a laughing stock’.