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| Benjamin Robert Haydon Venus and Anchises 1826 oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
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| Benjamin Robert Haydon Christ Blessing the Little Children 1837 oil on canvas Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
"Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846). Born in the West Country, he came to London to study at the Royal Academy in 1804. He produced huge paintings on epic themes but constantly struggled against poor eyesight and poverty (he was thrice imprisoned for debt). He was among the first to appreciate the beauty and importance of the Elgin Marbles and campaigned for the nation to buy them. He met Keats at Leigh Hunt's during October 1816, took him up, encouraged him, and included his portrait in his painting Christ's Entry into Jerusalem. Their enthusiastic friendship cooled when Haydon failed to repay a loan that Keats had ill been able to afford. It was Haydon who originated the myth that Keats sprinkled his throat with cayenne the better to enjoy the coolness of claret."
– from the Oxford Authors edition of John Keats, edited by Elizabeth Cook (Oxford University Press, 1990), see Index of Keats's Correspondents and others to whom he frequently refers
ADDRESSED TO [HAYDON]
Great spirits now on earth are sojourning;
He of the cloud, the cataract, the lake,
Who on Helvellyn's summit, wide awake,
Catches his freshness from Archangel's wing:
He of the rose, the violet, the spring,
The social smile, the chain for Freedom's sake:
And lo! – whose steadfastness would never take
A meaner sound than Raphael's whispering.
And other spirits there are standing apart
Upon the forehead of the age to come;
These, these will give the world another heart,
And other pulses. Hear ye not the hum
Of mighty workings? –
Listen awhile ye nations, and be dumb.
– composed by Keats 19 or 20 November 1816 and enclosed in a letter of 20 November to Haydon as apropos the previous evening ('Last Evening wrought me up and I cannot forbear sending you the following'). Haydon promised to send a copy to Wordsworth (Keats wrote that 'the idea . . . put me out of breath') who thought it 'assuredly vigorously conceived and well expressed'. The poem is intended as praise for Wordsworth, for Leigh Hunt, and for Haydon himself.
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| Pieter Christoffel Wonder Staircase of the London residence of the painter 1828 oil on canvas Centraal Museum, Utrecht |
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| Thomas Lawrence Portrait of Miss Harriet Clements ca. 1805 oil on canvas Indianapolis Museum of Art |
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| Thomas Lawrence Portrait of Lord Granville Leveson-Gower ca. 1804-09 oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
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| John Constable Celebration in East Bergholt of the Peace of 1814 painted ca. 1824 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest |
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| John Constable Extensive landscape with grey clouds ca. 1821 oil on paper, mounted on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
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| John Constable Parham Mill, Gillingham ca. 1826 oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
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| Samuel Palmer Cypresses at Villa d'Este, Tivoli 1838 watercolor, gouache Yale Center for British Art |
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| Richard Parkes Bonington In the Forest of Fontainebleau ca. 1825 oil on panel Yale Center for British Art |
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| Richard Parkes Bonington Knight and Page ca. 1826 oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
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| Richard Parkes Bonington Grand Canal at low tide looking toward the Rialto 1826 oil on panel Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth |
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| Richard Parkes Bonington Beached vessels and wagon near Trouville ca. 1825 oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
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| John Constable Cloud study 1821 oil on paper, mounted on panel Yale Center for British Art |