On the Grand Scale
‘THE story of Benjamin Haydon is summed up in the title of the dramatised version of his life, The Large Canvas, produced last year by the BBC for the centennial anniversary of his death. Wher. a painter sets out to paint the largest canvases he can cram into his studio, fame of some sort is bound to be his. One authority I consulted reduced his biography to this: "Haydon, Benjamin Robert (1786-1846), an ambitious historical painter and lecturer, on art, who produced a number of paintings of sacred subjects, which were too large in scope for the popular appreciation. Eventually, in a fit of disappointment, he committed suicide." On those bare bones, padded out with a few facts from his autobiography the BBC has built a moving drama. Haydon appears less \ludicrous than tragic, less of a crank than an idealist, never once a joke. It is all so well done that the listener finds himself wishing the large canvas had not been réduced to a cameo.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19471003.2.19.9
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 432, 3 October 1947, Page 9
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171On the Grand Scale New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 432, 3 October 1947, Page 9
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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