Details of Sculptor

Surname

Haydon

Alternative Surname

First Name

Samuel James Bouverie

Initial of Surname

H

Year of Birth/Baptism

1815

Flourished

Year of Death

1891

Biographical Details

Haydon was born at Heavitree, near Exeter, on 29 April 1815, the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Haydon and was christened on 17 October 1821 at Crediton, Devon. He went to Mount Radford School and was subsequently articled to a lawyer, who appears to have died in 1835, before Haydon completed his training. Haydon’s father appealed to his contacts, including Duncombe Bouverie (27), and must have successfully placed the youth with another firm for Haydon went on to practise on his own account in Exeter. The love of art apparently proved too strong, however, and Haydon abandoned the law and went to London, where he studied sculpture under E H Baily. A letter from Baily to the young man, dated 22 November 1838, invites him to a meeting, and it seems that Haydon began his training around this time. He was certainly in London by 1840 when he exhibited at the Royal Academy, giving his address as 14 Compton Street, Brunswick Square. He did not stay there long: in a letter to Captain Broke signed by the artist in October 1840 he gives his address as 32 Grafton Street East, Fitzroy Square. It seems that Haydon had been commissioned to carve a colossal head of the naval hero to be affixed to HMS Chesapeake. Although the commission appears to have come to nothing a small plaster bust was made (10, Letter in Suffolk CRO, Saumarez Papers, HA93/9/274, transcribed in Gunn 2006, 110).
He apparently showed great promise in his new profession. Benjamin Robert Haydon, the painter, whose kinship, if any, with the sculptor, has not been established, endorsed his work in October 1841, saying that the sculptor had a ‘great feeling for nature and simplicity, the basis of fine portraiture’ (Wills 1962, 787). B R Haydon later said of his namesake that he was ‘capable of taking the place of Chantrey’ (Pycroft 1883, 58). Haydon exhibited a large number of busts, in wax, bronze and marble. The Art Union said of his portrait all’antica of Sir Robert Newman (8) that it was ‘a work treated with becoming simplicity. The features are modelled with infinite care, and are marked by passages of nice execution in parts which are often too much neglected’ (AU, 1846, 189). The sitter himself felt that the work was ‘a very strong specimen’ and also commended the bust of his brother, Thomas Newman (9), as ‘very like’ (Wills 1962, 787). It is questionable how astute Haydon was in his business practice since Newman had to press him to send his final account three years after the busts were executed.
Haydon also tried his hand at poetic subjects. In 1844 he exhibited Hermia and Helena at the RA, endorsed by the Art Union as ‘graceful and skilfully composed’ (2; AU, 1844, 170). In 1847 his Perdita was declared ‘a graceful and successful realization of the character’ (AU, 1847, 200).
Haydon seems to have had a crisis in his career in 1849, when Duncombe Bouverie wrote to him: ‘I know not whether you persevere in your intention of abandoning your professional pursuits in which you have executed so many striking likenesses: if you do, I think the public will have much reason to regret it’ (Wills 1962, 787). Haydon continued to exhibit in the 1850s but showed few works and no portraits. In the 1860s, however, he returned to portraiture, carving a fine posthumous bust of a child, with a carved book acting as a plinth for the portrait (30). In 1870 he intended to apply for the curatorship of the Antique School at the Royal Academy, and acquired testimonials from J H Foley, E B Stephens and Frederick Leighton. Either he have changed his mind or was not selected for the post. He last exhibited at the Academy in 1876, giving his address as 6 Parkside, Knightsbridge.
Haydon married before 1860, and had a child called Flaxman. His death was announced in The Art Journal of 1891. Pyecroft wrote that his works were ‘so good that it is more the pity they are so few. It was not from want of genius, power or personal merit that he failed to make for himself a far greater name’ (Pycroft 1883, 58). A number of Haydon’s letters came to light in 1962 when they were published by their owner, Geoffrey Wills, but much still remains unknown about the career of this talented sculptor.
MGS
Literary References: Pycroft 1883, 58; AJ 1891, 352; Wills 1962, 785-7
Archival References: IGI