Neglected Genius

The journal of Benjamin Haydon was, Max Beerbohm reported to Siegfried Sassoon, the best diary Beerbohm had ever read. Harold Acton declared Haydon 'a more exciting figure than Ruskin.' H.H. Asquith compared him favourably with Rousseau, while Aldous Huxley declared that 'Never was anyone more clearly cut out to be an author.' Today Haydon's portraits and monumental historical paintings hang in almost all Britain's major collections. However in his own time (1786-1846) his reputation was less se