{"product_id":"9781446426586","title":"A Genius for Failure: The Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon","description":"\u003cp\u003e* Haydon's \u003cb\u003efirst attempt at suicide\u003c\/b\u003e ended when the low calibre bullet fired from his pistol fractured his skull but failed to penetrate his brain. \u003cbr\u003e* His \u003cb\u003esecond attempt\u003c\/b\u003e also failed: a deep slash across his throat left a large pool of blood at the entrance to his studio, but he was still able to reach his easel on the opposite side of the room. \u003cbr\u003e*Only his \u003cb\u003ethird attempt\u003c\/b\u003e, another cut to the throat which sprayed blood across his unfinished canvas, was successful. He died face-down before the bespattered 'Alfred and the First British Jury', his final bid 'to improve the taste of the English people' through the High Art of historical painting.\u003cbr\u003e* Such \u003cb\u003eintensity, struggle and near-comic inability to succeed\u003c\/b\u003e encapsulate Haydon's career. Thirty years before his death his huge, iconic paintings had made him the toast of early 19th-century London, drawing paying crowds to the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly for months and leading to nationwide tours. \u003cbr\u003e* However, his attempt to repeat such success three months before his death was to destroy him: barely a soul turned up, leaving the desperate painter alone, humiliated, and facing financial ruin. \u003cbr\u003e* In \u003ci\u003eA Genius for Failure\u003c\/i\u003e Paul O'Keeffe makes clear that the real tragedy of Haydon lay in the extent to which \u003cb\u003ehis failures were unwittingly engineered by his own actions\u003c\/b\u003e - his refusal to resort to the painting of fashionable portraits, for example, and his self-destructively acrimonious relationship with the RA.\u003cbr\u003e* The company he kept - Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth, Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington, among many others - and the momentous events he lived through - The Battle of Waterloo, the Coronation of George IV, and the passing of the first Parliamentary Reform Bill - make \u003ci\u003eA Genius for Failure\u003c\/i\u003e not only the \u003cb\u003edefinitive biography\u003c\/b\u003e of this \u003cb\u003efascinating and tragic\u003c\/b\u003e painter, but a \u003cb\u003estirring portrayal of an age\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Random House Adult Trade Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47154713362672,"sku":"9781446426586","price":36.65,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781446426586_p0.jpg?v=1763826890","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781446426586","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}