New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-08-12
THE COCKNEY RAPHAEL
Andrew Lang on the Genius ~
of B. R. Hayden.
From The London Morning Post.

Benjamin Hayden the painter. by the
| humorists of "Blackwoods Magazine
| in its early days 0S1I-1S2O Wilson
and Lockhart, who practically con.
Quoted the magazine under Ebony
| himself, had probably never seen either
Hayden. or his pictures. But the plct-
ures were praised i'm Leigh Hunts news
paper THE Examiner; the serial was
a radical rag, the editor was "the King
Of the Cockneys." and that was enough
| Hayden, as painter. must be tne
| Cocknev Raphael" Though ii could not
be known in Edinburgh. Hayden had
lent money to the editor who doomed
him-Leigh Hunt-and. according TO
Keats. Leigh Hunt spoke of Hayden
desire TO he repaid as vastly indicate.
Keats himself had published sonnet
on the greatness Of Hunt. Hayden and
Wordsworth, so Keats was cockney
apothecary. and was hidden to return
TO his gallpots. as the Cambridge Wis
about 1903 had advised Ben Jonson 10
return 10 his bricklaying. AS IL
CHANGED. Hayden came to Edinburgh
where the Blackwo6dians found that ne
was a delightful companion, an enthu-
siastic patriot a religious man, ana
therefore genuine Raphael ana no
cockney. He really was most extraor-
binary person. with all the attributes
of genius, but-where are his pictures?
Mr. Frederic Myers, in an essay on
| Genius took Hayden. as revealed IN MS
letters. for the very type OF person
! whose emotions and psychical expert
Cnces when engaged in his art were
those Of the true genius like Shelley, Tor
example. but who. somehow, was no ar
list. or q very pad artist. He had the
temperament but not the power or max
ing us see in his pictures what he APP
| ~ sau I'm his minds eve.
Yet i'm his earlier days he had sue
cess enough. and fame enough, to con-
| firm his faith in his own inspiration
which hardly needed to be confirmed
I or all unlikely people SIR Joshua Rey-.
nolds by a remark I'm his "Discourses,
| led Hayden into the wrong path; Sir
Joshua Is reported to have written:
THAT all men are equal in capacity. ana
that genius is the mere outcome or ap-
plication": as Wordsworth, according to
Lamb. Says he could have written
Hamlet if he had the mind" : Hay
don knew that he had infinite powers
Of application. and here no was right;
the most wonderful tales are told OF MS
strict and prolonged adhesion TO bust
ness in study and in artistic production.
He had the quality which Anthony
Trolopc thought essential. and which
was lacking to Thackeray: dellcacy per
haps extreme) prevents me from giving
Trollope's term for this valuable gift
the term was the nickname Of the Long
Parliament. Hayden bought ION ticD
Albnus on Anatomy. and Bell on Anat-
0mv. and some plaster casts; he LETT
his fathers stationery shop in Ply
mouth. took lodgings in the strand
worked till he was nearly blind In the
school of the Royal Academy (where
Wilkie also was q pupiD. and In TWO
years had his Joseph and Mary on the
Road To Egypt hung on the line ana
sold instantly for hundred gulhe az,
Here was encouragement. In lSo? the
Academy seems to have skyed or re-
iccted Haydon's Death Of GURUS
Dentatus" (did GURUS not ride, in fun
armour into a deep hole in the Forum ,
hut Leigh Hunt described the work as
"a bit of embodied lightning" Surely
all lightning IL embodied?-but cleo
trica science was then in It's INFANCY;
THE rank and fashion of London
crowded Haydon's studio: he became
lion. and. of course, must take the con-
sequences Of being found in such sit
nation" Society soon dropped him INTO
The abvss of poor GURUS CRemote from
libraries 7 have no Classical Dictionary
and am told that il was not GURUS, Dut
Curtius who jumped into yawnlng
ct,lf) In any case. while yet society
beamed on him. Hayden exhibited, az
the Egyptian Hall. Piccad1lly'. ms
Christ Entering Jerusalem. and II. ioo
was taken. in shillings, at the uoor'
Wordsworth admired the picture en-
Enthusiastically. Keats. Shelley. Scott
and Coleridee all admired Haydon's art
vet It Is forgotten. while Raeburn Is
~oipq 50 strong among collectors.
Is the neglect Of Hayden all that ne
deserves or must we believe that Cole
ridge scott. Keats, Wordsworth ano
GheIley we're not good judges of pict-
ureso Sir Walter. I think, made no pre-,
tensions to be knowing In the arts anu
was so good natured that ne pralsed al
most everything and everybody. How
over that was not the leading fault or
william Wordsworth. We continue 10
ask How could Hayden help believing
himself TO be a genius? He felt ike one
felt as IL he had "a star in his braln
nc could not guess that the sensation
,,ae caused bv bee in his bonnet.
livery one. HaZlitt. Leigh Hunt and all,
told him that he was genus. Ioethc
and Canova assured him That TINS was
the case-and were they right OF are
we right. we who have neglected Hayoou
for some seventy years? i rather thiiK
tba, all the great men of his age were
mistaken about Hayden. He saw Things
much too large. and loved 10 paint on
cnormous canyases. Scott. looking AT
ono of his crowded pictures. christ
Pleasing children" said when they
all get 40 and go away | would Ike TO
have the little girl in the foreground.
Sir Walter could not have found room
for the multitude in Abbotsford. Enor~
mitv Of canvas discourages the hestat-
ING public. but wall of the New Jeru-
salem to be covered with frescos would
not have stated Haydon's ambition. Haz-
lit Cwho really did have CLEANS OF in
tclligcnce about arD placed Hayden on
a level with Titan. We rather let MN
sit at the feet of Gustave DOre. Hayden
l,ney what was good when he saw IL.
Lord Elein brought the last poor plumber
~ a ruined land. the Panathenaic frieze
Of tho Parthcnon. TO England. Here no.
body. or next to nobody. had seen the
sculptiire of the Greek prime. of the age
of Pheidids The amateurs were puzzled.
PAYNE Knight. who had a name to be
scholar. averred that the Theseus tnow
in tho British Museum was Roman work
Of the age Of Hadrian, and sneered at
the friczo as worthless. Nobody knew
what To think: the marbles were placed
in q dark clubhouse in Park Lane; Hay
don was taken by Wilkie to see them, fell
I'm love with them at first sight. copied
them. wrote on them. laughed al Payne
knight. ard induced commission To
recommend the purchase of the marbles
bv the state. 1T has saved the marbles.
but ii will ruin Hayden said Sir
Thomas Lawrence.
As man Of genius always does Hay
don had ouarreled with the Royal Acad-
emv. H attacked that body i'm series
of unsigned letters i'm the Examiner
and the editor. Leigh Hunt. disclosed the
secret Thereafter Hayden took Black
woodian view Of Hunt. and Keats also
found out that hero. Society. for some
reason or no reason. abandoned Hayden.
That does not quite explain why he fell