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B. R. HAYDON.

THE borough of Plymouth, England, which is remarkable as the birth-place of Reynolds, Northcote, and many other names eminent in art, is also honored as the native place of Haydon. At the age of nineteen, he proceeded to London, as a place better suited for the cultivation and exercise of his powers, and almost immediately arrested public attention. His second picture, the "Death of Dentatus," was painted in his twenty-second year, and not only found an immediate purchaser in the Earl of Mulgrave, but obtained a premium of one hundred guineas from the British Institution. His great picture, the "Judgment of Solomon," was exhibited in 1814, when he was twenty-eight; and it is indisputably the best picture of the subject ever painted, and Raffaelle is one of the number who have treated it. His next great picture, "Christ riding into Jerusalem," and which was five years on the easel, is now in Philadelphia. It is defective in the principal figure; and although filled with parts beautifully conceived and executed, it is, as a whole, rather spotty in its effect.

Haydon possessed talents of the very highest order, and these were cultivated by the most indefatigable study of the best models. From the Phidian sculptures of the dismantled Parthenon and the most excellent of the works of Raffaelle, he derived those principles which have clothed the creations of his own fervent imagination, and will not fail to obtain from posterity a more unanimous applause than he can now hope to receive from his contemporaries. His style of composition is bold and picturesque, but at the same time simple and grand; his drawing and expression accurate and refined, and his coloring almost Venitian in richness.

He began his career as an Historical painter with his whole soul ardently devoted to the highest and noblest in art. The prospect was sufficiently discouraging; for hitherto the wealthy men of England had shown no disposition to follow the example of George the Third in his employment of the talents of West. But nothing could subdue the indomitable perseverance and enthusiasm of the man. When not occupied in vindicating the honor of modern British art y the labors of his pencil, he was wielding his pen, either to awaken a feeling in favor of its ighest department, or to denounce and expose the ignorance of some impudent dictator in the orld of taste.

The "Napoleon" is one of his later works, is of small dimensions, and remarkable for its nplicity.

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