"Christ's Entry into Jerusalem"

Haydon was a British painter who specialized in grand historical pictures, although he also painted a few contemporary subjects and portraits.  His painting 'Christ's Entry into Jerusalem'   was later to form the nucleus of the American Gallery of Painting, erected by his cousin, John Haviland of Philadelphia.

Haydon was impelled by strong personal faith to undertake his uncommissioned religious canvases. The years of labor he expended on them helped to ruin him financially. It was his aim to cast out doubt as well as win fame, and in Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, he addressed the issue of doubt directly, assembling past rationalists and sceptics like Voltaire and his own more devout friends like Wordsworth among the watching crowd. Their varied reactions to Christ's appearance amount to a debate on faith.