Title and imprint from lettered impression of this print in the British Museum online catalog.
Library's impression before all letters, lacking the engraved caption title at head of image and the imprint.
Below image: A Painter who relies on his compass, leans on a prop which will not support him: Vide, Sir Joshua Reynolds.
"Haydon (see No. 11599) managed to have two of the Raphael cartoons at Hampton Court, 'The Miraculous Draught of Fishes', and 'Paul at Athens', sent to his studio to be copied by his pupils. According to himself this made a sensation and enraged his enemies, the Academicians. John Bailey visited the studio, making the caricature which was published by Elmes in the 'Annals of the Fine Arts' (a platform for praise and advertisement of Haydon by himself and the editor). Haydon denied that his pupils used compasses, if so it was against his rules."--George.
Print shows Benjamin Robert Haydon's pupils working at large canvases on copies of one of the Raphael cartoons from Hampton Court which extends across the wall forming a background. A bird (? a magpie) with the head of Haydon wearing a hat and spectacles flies (left to right) in the upper part of the design; he blows a trumpet (his own) which is supported by two pens, and from which hangs a banner inscribed "Director of the Public Taste". Behind him fall palette, brushes, and ink-pots. On the large cartoon are figures showing that the subject can only be Elymas struck by blindness. The pupils' canvases are at right angles to the cartoon. One (unidentified) draws in charcoal on the canvas on the extreme left, standing on the lower rungs of a tall double ladder. Next him, on a board supported on a ladder, is Thomas Landseer in profile to the left, wearing a fur-trimmed overcoat to the ankles. The center figure is William Bewick, standing on a board supported on steps and stools; he stands in profile to the left, leaning back, and sketching at arm's length, supporting his arm with his left hand. His canvas is inscribed 'Bewck Pupil. . B. Hay[don].' Standing in profile to the right is Thomas Christmas, laboriously using a compass. He wears large shapeless shoes to imply that he is down at heel. His canvas is signed 'Christmas Pupil R. B. H.' Working at a portfolio which leans against Christmas's canvas, Charles Landseer (1799-1879) stands on a board raised on steps, measuring with compasses the design on the cartoon. The hands of a sixth pupil holding compasses against the cartoon projects from behind a canvas. All the pupils but T. Landseer wear tail-coats and narrow trousers; all but the first described have hair resting in curls on their collars. Cf. BM Satires.