Oil paint on canvas
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/benjamin-robert-haydon-243" aria-label="More by Benjamin Robert Haydon" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Benjamin Robert Haydon</a>
Chairing Member
Purchased 1946
actions: expressive
adults
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children
crowd
diseases and conditions
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England, South East
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government and politics
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<p>Benjamin Robert Haydon began sketching this scene while he was in prison for unpaid debts. Here, the prisoners in the courtyard below his window are preparing for an election-themed masquerade, put on for their entertainment. The prisoners include former MPs, bankers, authors and merchants. This painting focuses on the pretend chairing ceremony, marking the success and welcoming of the ‘elected’ candidate who is clothed in dark green. Bottles of alcohol and betting slips hint at the reasons for prisoners’ incarceration, and at the debt and the economic hardships they face.</p><p><em>Gallery label, May 2023</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
23 March 2001 – 6 January 2002
2002-01-06
23 March 2001 – 25 August 2001
2001-08-25
2001-03-23
Sir John Soane’s Museum (London, UK)
http://www.soane.org
6 October 2001 – 6 January 2002
2002-01-06
2001-10-06
Laing Art Gallery (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK)
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/
2001-03-23
Hogarth The Election
Loan-out
15 July 2002 – 21 May 2007
2007-05-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-07-15
Exhibiting Turner
Collection based display
16 November 2015 – 13 November 2016
2016-11-13
16 November 2015 – 13 November 2016
2016-11-13
2015-11-16
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2015-11-16
Art and Alcohol
Collection based display
18 May 2019 – 29 September 2019
2019-09-29
18 May 2019 – 29 September 2019
2019-09-29
2019-05-18
Manchester Art Gallery (Manchester, UK)
http://www.manchestergalleries.org
2019-05-18
The Crowd
Loan-out
26 September 2022
26 September 2022
2022-09-26
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2022-09-26
Gallery 10
Collection based display
Chairing the Member
frame: 1745 × 2150 × 90 mm
support: 1524 × 1918 mm
Purchased 1946
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>Chairing the Member</i> is a large narrative painting by the history painter and diarist Benjamin Robert Haydon. Set in a prison courtyard, this crowded scene depicts the dress rehearsal for a performance of an election-themed masquerade, particularly, the chairing ceremony of a newly elected member of Parliament. Occupying the centre of the painting and clothed in green is the prisoner who is the focus of this ceremony, a tradition to welcome and mark the success of a candidate. He sits on the shoulders of two men, swinging a champagne flute to fend off one of the prison wardens, identifiable by the cell door key in his hand. A fellow prisoner to his right, who is likewise raised in the air, defies the tug of another warden.</p>
<p>Haydon provided a key identifying the individuals in his journals. At the left of the painting, three armed guards stand watching the chaos with indifferent expressions. A mock soldier stands in opposition to them, brandishing the stick of a mop, alongside a young boy with his fist raised, equipped with a small tin sword and banner declaring ‘Freedom of Election’. Haydon painted himself leaning out of a window in the top right, watching the scene unfold. At the right of the composition, a young man stares drunkenly at a bottle, surrounded by his wife and two young children. In the foreground, a prisoner playing the role of Head Constable of the election hides under a large red curtain next to a small washtub containing bottles of burgundy, champagne and a pineapple. The table above the washtub is laden with alcohol and an array of drinking glasses. In his journal Haydon described the various elements of this masquerade scene as a ‘harmless frolic’ that allowed the prisoners to ‘forget their troubles, and their usual methods of burying the recollection of them’ (<i>The life of Benjamin Robert Haydon,</i> pp.196–7).</p>
<p>The event depicted in <i>Chairing the Member</i> is based on scenes Haydon witnessed at King’s Bench debtor’s prison in London, where he served sentences in 1823 and 1827. The painting was intended to be the second in a trio that started with <i>The Mock Election</i> 1827 (Royal Collection, London). In <i>Chairing the Member</i>, characters that Haydon introduced in <i>The Mock Election</i> return to celebrate their win. A small sketch in oil paints for this work is in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter. The third painting would have been titled <i>The Election Ball</i>, but there is no evidence that this was ever started or completed. The two completed paintings of the trio were based on sketches of portraits Haydon made both while in prison and upon his return as a visitor. Unable to gain access to his former fellow inmate and performer of the role of the elected member, Joshua Paul Meredith, Haydon drew on a combination of the physical features of other characters. Haydon witnessed and recorded the entrance of the guards and fragments of the rehearsal and his own invented scenes into the composition. The self-portrait he includes within the painting, perhaps demonstrates an affinity with the inmates’ struggles, especially financial ruin.</p>
<p>In presenting a contemporary narrative scene, this work was a departure from the history paintings – those depicting subjects drawn from classical and recent history, mythology and from the Bible that Haydon was most known for and for which he passionately advocated in his roles as critic, commentator and teacher. Haydon’s pursuit of epic historic scenes chimed with Sir Joshua Reynold’s teachings on ‘high art’ at the Royal Academy Schools, his studies under Henri Fuseli and contemporaries like JMW Turner. Haydon likened his narrative scene to the history paintings that can both provide humour and elicit feelings of sympathy in the viewer, thus elevating his painting in the rankings of high art while reflecting on topical issues. (<i>The Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon,</i> p.180).</p>
<p>
<i>Chairing the Member</i> comments on poverty, politics and excess through satire. For instance, the young family at the bottom right of the painting has fallen victim to drunkenness and poverty. At the feet of the man who appears intoxicated, are three bills from a pawnbroker: one for a wedding ring, one his wife’s necklace and the third for his son’s shoes. Haydon noted of this group that ‘drunkards generally part with the little necessaries of their wives and children before they trespass on their own.’ (<i>The life of Benjamin Robert Haydon, </i>p.8). Perhaps incarcerated because of his reckless extravagance, the prisoner playing the Head Constable in the bottom left corner looks out at the spectator, his fingers to his lips, attempting to conceal his presence. The bottles and pineapple in the washtub and the delicate objects on the table depict what Haydon described in his journal as the ‘relics of luxurious enjoyment.’ (<i>The Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon, </i>p.17)</p>
<p>
<i>Chairing the Member</i> was first exhibited publicly in July 1928 at the Western Bazaar in Old Bond Street, one of Regency London’s premier shopping malls. The prominent essayist and acquaintance of Haydon, Charles Lamb, wrote to congratulate the artist for the painting’s ‘true broad Hogarthian fun’ and the ‘great pleasure’ it gave him, a reference to the sharp urban wit of Haydon’s contemporary William Hogarth (<i>The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb</i>, p.778). Encouraged by such praise and the acquisition of <i>The Mock Election</i> into the Royal Collection in 1828 on the instruction of King George IV, Haydon anticipated great success for <i>Chairing the Member </i>(O’Keefe, 2009, p.272). However, the king did not purchase <i>Chairing the Member</i> and it was eventually sold at a reduced price.</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Benjamin Robert Haydon,<i> The Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon, Historical Painter, from His Autobiography and Journals</i>, ed. by Tom Taylor, 3 vols., London 1853.</p>
<p>David Blayney Brown, Robert Woof and Stephen Hebron, <i>Benjamin Robert Haydon, 1786-1846: Painter and Writer, Friend of Wordsworth and Keats</i>,<i> </i>Grasmere 1996, pp.15–16 and 143–5.</p>
<p>Paul O’Keeffe, <i>A Genius for Failure: The Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon</i>, London 2009, pp.259–75.</p>
<p>
<i>The Works Of Charles And Mary Lamb, </i>ed. Edward Verrall Lucas, vol vii, London 1905, pp.778.</p>
<p>Chiedza Mhondoro<br/>August 2023</p>
</div>

Summary
2023-08-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>Benjamin Robert Haydon began sketching this scene while he was in prison for unpaid debts. Here, the prisoners in the courtyard below his window are preparing for an election-themed masquerade, put on for their entertainment. The prisoners include former MPs, bankers, authors and merchants. This painting focuses on the pretend chairing ceremony, marking the success and welcoming of the ‘elected’ candidate who is clothed in dark green. Bottles of alcohol and betting slips hint at the reasons for prisoners’ incarceration, and at the debt and the economic hardships they face.</p>
</div>

Online caption
2023-11-29T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
actions: expressive adults architecture children crowd diseases and conditions drinking drink, wine drunkenness eating and drinking election England England, South East England, Southern flag - non-specific food and drink furnishings girl government and politics groups Kent leisure and pastimes man military music and entertainment objects parade party people placard places politician, Member of Parliament public service reading, writing, printed matter recreational activities religious and ceremonial restraining society soldier square table Tenterden townscapes / man-made features UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions woman work and occupations