Born in Plymouth, and a member of the Plymouth Institution (now known as the Athenaeum), Benjamin Haydon (1786–1846) was a painter who specialised in grand historical pictures.
His commercial success was damaged by his dealings with patrons, and the enormous scale of his preferred work.
Troubled by financial problems throughout his life, he died after committing suicide in 1846.
https://youtu.be/XNDHUixNPL0
The talk is be given by Athenaeum CEO, Owen Ryles, who is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an alumnus of Plymouth College of Art and has previously given talks on the artists Charles Hamilton Smith and Piet Mondrian.