New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-03-14
NUMBER 5.
Hayden the Painter.

lUW WhSuSts oHu Win n lttle KNOB at the END
to prevent it's slipping through my teeth, I am
speaking of pipe. A fine fellow bought in
Chartres street the other day, in form like a
common clay, but having the advantage ofbeina
light, and not liable to break. / had just flled
him to the brim, and was drawing in the first
long, soothing stream of dry smoke as took NJ
volume Of Haydon's autobiography, languidly,
for felt should be bsred. wished to have
something easy and interesting to read. and /
took it not of my own free will, but as kind Of
duty ! anticipated the usual business-unpub-
lished letters from distinguished men with no
thing to distinguish them from those of undistin
guished people-hard details full of technical
terms Opened it feeling it would interfere witt
the soothing influence Of my pipe But found
1 was mistaken, ! generally err in my present
ments. | was soon deeply interested in poor
old Haydon's story. His determination. as =
boy, to be a great artist. His pluck in bidding
| for some anatomical book, at an auction withou,
| a cent in his pocket, and leaving his father to
| pay for it; and his pride in dashing down til.
dictionary on the counter and leaving the shop
| when customer offered him less than the pro
per price for it. But when [ read - hated
day books, ledgers, bill books and cash books
hated standing behind the counter, and iusulted
the customers / looked round for chair or
1 something to represent Hayden, that / might
sap it on the back by way Of expressing my ad-
| miration. s IS
read ON, on, never weary. THERE'S souse
thing startling to be thus admitted to the so
! ciety, the confidence of great man. to follow
his movements, and hear his most inmost
thoughts freely expressed. Glorious things are
books; men do not half appreciate them. TIL
idea of being introduced, as it were, into the
society Of circle of great men, for one or two
dollars! Why, one will spend fifty, and take
no end of trouble to simply see the house in
which single famous man was born and YET
one will neglect the opportunity (when it cost
next to nothing,) of becoming acquainted with
a dozen, to hear what they said, thought, did
and looked like. Why, it is like a hungry man
going to Baton Rouge to see pie dish when
he can have a fine dinner for dollar, by stay
ing in New Orleans. Hayden introduces you
to Wilkie, Coleridge, Wordsworth, the Duke OF
Wellington, Nelson, Faseli, Leigh Hunt, Land.
seer, Collins and many others.
! Hayden reminds me very much of an old COM
\ panion now in New York, an author whose
name every one knows, but who is as unsuccess-
| full as poor Hayden, simply because he will
| fight the world, because he prefers walking on
the wrong side of the sidewalk, and humping
up against every one he meets, to going easily
/ with the tide on the right side. He certainly
gets along somehow; occasionally knocks down
one of those who oppose him, and makes stir
but in the long run, he would effect infinitely
greater progress, by taking the easy side I bur
still, it is grand 70 see q man going his own way
in spite of every one, and never s' cavingin i
This stern determination of Haydon's only
makes you admire him; for you find he is not
all opposition; there is soft side to his char
acter; he doats upon his wife and children ana
his art. He says he has endured great misery
but has enjoyed more happiness in mere paint
ing than would eounterbalance all his miserie,
put together.
The poor fellow! when his first child is only
fourteen months old, baby, he says, with ex
quisite simplicity, his mind full of his art
The dear boy grows apace and seems to be
more pleased with color than anything else
In 1922, when his boy is an infant, he prays
God to give him genius, that he may be a great
painter; that the son may carry out what th,
father commenced. In 1912, he says, g Thanh
God, not one of my boys, nor my girl can draw
a straight line even with ruler, much les
without one. And l pray God on my knees
with my forehead bent to the earth, and m,
lips to the dust, that He will in his mere
aflct them with every other passion. appetit
l or misery, wretchedness, disease, insanity, o
, gabbling idiOtism, rather than q longing fo
painting-that scorned, miserable art-tha
greater imposture than the human species
initiates" What change Did ever broke
heart give forth such wall We're eve
bright hopes, glorious, noble aspirations s
, contrasted with blasted prospects and bite
disappointment, as in this short prayer of 10,
and bitter cry of agony.
But his art was his god to the last, he wor
shipped it through life, and thanked God jus
before he left the world, that he had advanced
, it, and educated the first artists Of the day-
, Landseer, Eastlake and Lance None, VIII
have not mixed in the society of artists cal
conceive the extent to which they are attaches
to their art, the extent to which it supplies tn
place of everything else, and makes them in
different to those amusements which to othe
: young men are necessary. | have often entere
= the studio of an artist, in the evening, an
l found half dozen young fellows laughing an
talking with more heartiness over coffee an
piI es, than | ever did men of other classes owe
the most sumptuons supper table.
\ Hayden speaks with the greatest feeling
. the pleasant meetings Of his student life-an
well he might, when such men as Wikie wer
> his companions. can fancy old Wilkie sittin
n on the bed drawing his own ugly reflections il
the looking glass, and entirely forgetting t
, order any breakfast Or when he saw th
! crowd collected round his first picture in th
exhibition, his repeating, 50 Dear, dear, it's les
wonderful 1t must have been somewhat of
modification though to poor Hayden, with al
his craving for fame, to have the modest Sec
3 it in his autobiography.
a On one occasion Hayden dissects lones
which leads him to discover where exist the dill
n ferences between man and the beast He saws
Is was struck with the relative difference an
similarity in the forms of the lion and the mar
a put, as mere experiment, the lion resting o
. the heel and ball of the toe like the huma
!, being, and in an instant of inspired perception
saw the whole system. found the lioness's fee
fat -harE EhaSt DnrrOw-har hroi Il,
forearm long-her body long. found that sh
was stately and capable of standing erect o
her feet when resting on the same bones as tn
p human being. | compared the two in muscl
and construction the points where they differe
| put down as marks of brutality on the lion
part, as indications of humanity on that Of tn
man, and concluded that in building superio
form, the human peculiarities are to be dwel
on, while for inferior form, those which belon
. to the brute are to be approached" A littl
! further on he writes: '' About the latter end c
this year the artists met with black, native
Boston, perfect antique figure alive; on my get
ting sight of him engaged him for month an
n proceeded to draw and cast him, without
+ moments loss of time, in all the attitude
wanted for my picture. The most extraordi
/ nary thing was, that | found in this negro a.
q the positive marks of characteristic brutality
beautiful as his form was, his calf was high an
feeble, his feet fiat and heel projecting, his fore
arm as long as his arm bone, his deltoid shor
f his jaw projecting and his forehead receding
e He says in another part of the book, speakin