He was, for a time, patronized by one or two of those judicious persons who make a virtue of being singular, and of pitching their own opinions against those of the world in matters of taste and criticism. But they soon tired of poor Tinto, and laid him down as a load, upon the principle on which a spoilt child throws away its plaything. Misery, I fear, took him up, and accompanied him to a premature grave, to which he was carried from an obscure lodging in Swallow Street, where he had been dunned by his landlady within doors, and watched by bailiffs without, until death came to his relief. A corner of the Morning Post noticed his death, generally adding, that his manner displayed considerable genius, though his style was rather sketchy; and referred to an advertisement, which announced that Mr. Varnish, the well-known printseller, had still on hand a very few drawings and paintings by Richard Tinto, Esquire, which those of the nobility and gentry, who might wish to complete the collection of modern art, were invited to visit without delay. So ended Dick Tinto, a lamentable proof of the great truth, that in the Fine Arts mediocrity is not permitted, and that he who cannot ascend to the very top of the ladder, will do well not to put his foot upon it at all.

128

REVIEW OF THE PUBLIC EXHIBITIONS,
NEW WORKS &c.

ART. XII. Exhibition of Mr. HAYDON'S Picture of
Christ's Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem, and other
Pictures, now exhibiting at Bullock's Great Room, Egyp-
tian Hall, Piccadilly.

FOR the four years, and upwards, that our work has been established, and during great part of our former labours, have we run a perpetual gauntlet for asserting the right of Haydon to the title of an historical painter of the highest order. Letters, anonymous, imploring and threatening, with and without caricatures; friends and acquaintances, and people with whom we were only on speaking terms; artists with shrugs of shoulders, critics with expressions of regret, and actors with squeezes of condolence at our infatuation, blindness and ignorance, have been firing at our devoted heads, and shaking their own-and yet-can it be?-we are alive-our work is in being, increasing in favour and in sale-andHaydon's picture done.

Our triumph is now complete. Wait till the picture be finished was our reply, it is finished-it is before the public, the first judges in the country have stamped it with their sanction, the public feeling has sanctioned the connoisseurs -we are satisfied-we are proud of every word or syllable that we have ever written upon the subject, and the pledge is redeemed that one friend said we had engaged too deep for redemption.

The way in which the public press has burst forth in praise of Haydon's picture, will be an everlasting honour to its spirit and taste. Our readers will recollect how we were taunted for mentioning his name in conjunction with the great men of other ages, whereas the public journals have joined his name with almost every one of them in

Engraved by W. Harvey pupil of B.R.Haydon from an original portrait.

succession; and as we are convinced, even now, whatever we might say of this picture would be looked upon more as an effusion of friendship than of judgment, we shall quote a capital account from the "Observer," to show our readers that there are others in the world who, though totally unknown to Mr. Haydon, think as highly of him as we do that have that pleasure,

MR. HAYDON'S PICTURE.

"Mr. Haydon has been, for some years, known to the public by an enthusiasm for his art, singular even among painters-by his fine studies of the Elgin marbles, and by his unwearied application to the highest class of history. He has now completed a capital work, and may congratulate himself upon the time and labour that it has absorbed. They have been well expended; and whatever may be the duration of the British school, or the dignity to which it may rise, we can foresee no period at which it will not reckon this picture among its claims to distinction. Short as the period of its exhibition has been, it has been so generally noticed by the daily papers, that we feel some reluctance in giving a description which may tell so little untold already. But the painter's own language has a value that makes it worth a more careful preservation than that of his little pamphlet; and as we, with the habitual vanity of journalists, expect to have our files looked into by the great and the wise, by the philosophers and the painters, of a thousand years to come, we give Mr. Haydon's description of, as he gracefully says, his intention in his noble work. We look upon this little document as very important, and without making any of those comparisons which Mr. Haydon's modesty would be the last to suffer, must feel how delightful it would be to have such illustrations of their own pencils from the great painters of the past ages. How delightful to have VOL. V. NO. 16.

K