Paul Falconer Poole (1807-1879) 'Shy, sensitive, nervous, full of large conceptions, with a pathetic sadness in his manner ... possessed of a strong individuality, a man of peculiar powers of mind ... a strain of savage in his blood and a good hater'. (William Bell Scott) Paul Falconer Poole was born in Bristol, the son of a grocer. He is first mentioned in Cumberland's papers in 1826 and his Romantic sepia drawings are typical of the Bristol School. Initially close in style to Rippingille, painting genre subjects (paintings of the everyday life of the times, which often tell a story or teach a moral), he sold work to the Bristol patron John Gibbons. Yet many of the Bristol circle, including Danby, found his work overly sentimental. Nevertheless, he and Danby were briefly friends. He began to develop a Romantic style and left Bristol for London in 1829, aged 22, with introductions from Cumberland. However, his closeness to Danby was ended by his entanglement with Danby's wife, Hannah, in 1830. He later painted dramatic, multi-figured historical scenes as well as more sentimental paintings of country girls in landscape settings.