Details
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850)
A 4-page autograph letter, 8°, signed, from Rydal Mount, [? 1843], to Benjamin Robert Haydon, expressing satisfaction "that Mrs Haydon's health is restored," spurring him on after his "disappointment in the Cartoons" and discussing the artist's portrait of himself on Helvellyn.
Failure should not make him condemn other people. "The best way of dealing with things of this kind in every concern of life is, not to be busy in imputing the failure to faults in others, but rigorously to examine one's own doings, so, if possible, to find out what is amiss there, and amend it for the future, and this is the best mode of avenging one's self upon detractors."
He admits that "the state of affairs" as the artist describes them "is very discouraging," and fears "much that the Picture you are doing of me upon Hevellyn, as it is not done by commission, may disappoint you. Had it been summertime, I think I could have procured a sketch of the view from some part of Hevellyn, but I have no means of doing it at present." Asking if Haydon knows "Westall, the artist," he suggests he contact him as "He has made a great number of drawings ... some from the mountain tops one of which ... from the top of Saddleback I distinctly remember." Westall might be found "at Murray's" and would be grateful for the "application."
He asks if Haydon knows "who engraved the head of Northcote in Hazlitt's life of that artist," expresses sorrow over the illness of his daughter and sends his well wishes to both the artist and his wife.
A 4-page autograph letter, 8°, signed, from Rydal Mount, [? 1843], to Benjamin Robert Haydon, expressing satisfaction "that Mrs Haydon's health is restored," spurring him on after his "disappointment in the Cartoons" and discussing the artist's portrait of himself on Helvellyn.
Failure should not make him condemn other people. "The best way of dealing with things of this kind in every concern of life is, not to be busy in imputing the failure to faults in others, but rigorously to examine one's own doings, so, if possible, to find out what is amiss there, and amend it for the future, and this is the best mode of avenging one's self upon detractors."
He admits that "the state of affairs" as the artist describes them "is very discouraging," and fears "much that the Picture you are doing of me upon Hevellyn, as it is not done by commission, may disappoint you. Had it been summertime, I think I could have procured a sketch of the view from some part of Hevellyn, but I have no means of doing it at present." Asking if Haydon knows "Westall, the artist," he suggests he contact him as "He has made a great number of drawings ... some from the mountain tops one of which ... from the top of Saddleback I distinctly remember." Westall might be found "at Murray's" and would be grateful for the "application."
He asks if Haydon knows "who engraved the head of Northcote in Hazlitt's life of that artist," expresses sorrow over the illness of his daughter and sends his well wishes to both the artist and his wife.