Francis Danby

Francis Danby
The Shipwreck, oil on canvas, 1859.
Born	(1793-11-16)16 November 1793 County Wexford, Ireland
Died	9 February 1861(1861-02-09) (aged 67) Exmouth, England
Nationality	Irish
Known for	Landscape painting

Francis Danby ARA (16 November 1793 – 9 February 1861) was an Irish painter of the Romantic era. His imaginative, dramatic landscapes were comparable to those of John Martin. Danby initially developed his imaginative style while he was the central figure in a group of artists who have come to be known as the Bristol School. His period of greatest success was in London in the 1820s.

Born in the south of Ireland, he was one of a set of twins; his father, James Danby, farmed a small property he owned near Wexford, but his death, in 1807, caused the family to move to Dublin, while Francis was still a schoolboy. He began to practice drawing at the Royal Dublin Society's schools; and under an erratic young artist named James Arthur O'Connor he began painting landscapes. Danby also made acquaintance with George Petrie.

In 1813 Danby left for London together with O'Connor and Petrie. This expedition, undertaken with very inadequate funds, quickly came to an end, and they had to get home again by walking. At Bristol they made a pause, and Danby, finding he could get trifling sums for water-color drawings, remained there working diligently and sending to the London exhibitions pictures of importance. There his large oil paintings quickly attracted attention.

From around 1818/19, Danby was a member of the informal group of artists which has become known as the Bristol School, taking part in their evening sketching meetings and sketching excursions visiting local scenery. His View of the Avon Gorge (1822) depicts figures sketching in a location favoured by the group. He remained connected with members of the Bristol School for around a decade, even after leaving Bristol in 1824.

The group had initially formed around Edward Bird, and Danby would eventually succeed Bird as its central figure. Bird's genre painting had a naturalistic style and fresh colours, and his influence has been seen on Danby's style. Examples are Danby's treatment of figures in Boys Sailing a Little Boat (c. 1821) and The Delivery of Israel out of Egypt (1825). Danby was also close to Edward Villiers Rippingille, whose style developed alongside that of Danby under the influence of Bird.