While Haydon was an inmate of the King’s Bench Prison, in July, 1827, a
burlesque of an election was got up. “I was sitting in my own
apartment,” (writes the painter,) “buried in my own reflections,
melancholy, but not despairing at the darkness of my own prospects, and
the unprotected condition of my wife and children, when a tumultuous and
hearty laugh below brought me to my window. In spite of my own sorrow’s,
I laughed out heartily when I saw the occasion.” (He sketched the
grotesque scene, painted it in four months with the aid of noblemen and
friends, and the advocacy of the press, in exciting the sympathy of the
country.) “To the joint kindness of each,” wrote the painter, in
gratitude, “I owe the peace of the last five months, without which I
never could have accomplished so numerous a composition in so short a
time.” The picture proved attractive as an exhibition; still better, it
was purchased by King George IV. for 500_l._, and it was conveyed from
the Egyptian-hall to St. James’s Palace. A committee of gentlemen then
undertook Mr. Haydon’s affairs; and with the purchase-money of the
picture, and the proceeds of the exhibition, the painter was restored to
the bosom of his family. In 1828, he painted, as a companion to this
picture, “The Chairing of the Members,” which was bought by Mr. Francis,
of Exeter, for 300 guineas.