Benjamin Haydon

1786 (Plymouth, England) – 1846 (London)

Haydon epitomises the way a mistaken belief in one’s own genius can still lead to a significant role in the culture of the time. He was one of Fuseli’s students at the Royal Academy, and painted a portrait in fullblown romantic style of his friend Wordsworth at Helvellyn. His friendship with Keats ended when he reneged on a loan Keats had made to him. He also quarreled and fell out with Hunt, an early friend, at the same time. Both Landseer and Morse studied under him. He included the faces of his friends Lamb, Hazlitt, Wordsworth (and Keats) in his painting ‘Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem.’