Exhibit:

Gallery for Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "On a Portrait of Wordsworth"

Preview of images

Haydon portrait of Wordsworth
Haydon portrait of Wellington
Haydon portrait of Napoléon

Parent Resource

On a Portrait of Wordsworth by B.R. Haydon

This gallery is designed to accompany an omnibus edition of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's (EBB's) "On a Portrait of Wordsworth, by B. R. Haydon," a poem that functions as an ekphrasis of a portrait by Haydon of William Wordsworth. That portrait in turn alludes to previous portraits by Haydon of Napoleon Bonaparte and of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. Further discussions of these allusions can be found in the annotated edition of EBB's sonnet authored by Dino Franco Felluga, Joshua King, Christopher Rovee, and Marjorie Stone:

https://editions.covecollective.org/edition/portrait-wordsworth-br-haydon

Images in this Exhibit

Benjamin Robert Haydon, Wordsworth on Helvellyn (1842)
Haydon portrait of Wordsworth

A monument to the mind-in-creation, Benjamin Robert Haydon’s Wordsworth on Helvellyn (1842) is one of Romanticism’s iconic images. It gives concrete form to the romantic critic William Hazlitt’s description of a William Wordsworth who “lives in the busy solitude of his own heart; in the deep silence of thought” (19: 11). The twentieth-century art historian A. C. Sewter considered it not just the best portrait of Wordsworth, but “the finest portrait of the nineteenth century” (324). And in the words of the critic and biographer Stephen Gill, it is “what an image of Wordsworth...
Benjamin Robert Haydon, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1839)
Haydon portrait of Wellington

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, posed twice in 1839 for Benjamin Robert Haydon so that Haydon could paint a portrait of him (exact dates not known).  The resulting painting (oil on canvas) shows Wellington at sunrise overlooking the field of Waterloo, where Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated for the last time.  This painting is a companion to Haydon's portrait of Napoleon on St. Helena gazing across the sea at sunset.  Image:  Benjamin Robert Haydon, ...
Benjamin Robert Haydon, Napoléon Bonaparte (based on a version of 1830)
Haydon portrait of Napoléon

In 1829, Benjamin Robert Haydon painted a first version of Napoleon Musing after Sunset, which was exhibited at the Western Exchange in 1830.  Haydon later painted 23 versions and replics of this work, including the one pictured here.  The later full-length version was titled Napoleon Musing at St. Helena.  In 1831, William Wordsworth wrote of this painting, "If I can command my thoughts I will write something about your Picture, in prose for the Muse has forsaken me - being scared away by the villainous aspect of the Times."  Image:  ...