John King Portrait of Francis Danby
Francis Danby (1793-1861) 'A life more sad has been rarely led by a man of undoubted genius'. (The Athenaeum)
Francis Danby lived a turbulent and chaotic life. He was born in County Wexford, Ireland, and the family later moved to Dublin. At the age of 19, Danby left for London and never seems to have returned home. On running out of money in London he walked the 120 miles back to Bristol where he settled, made a hasty and unwise marriage to Hannah Hardedge, and met the Bristol artists and a sympathetic patron, John Gibbons. During his Bristol years, 1813-24, he focused on the local landscape, initially by selling watercolour views of the Avon Gorge. In about 1818 he began painting seriously in oils, which he had only briefly used before. His style and technique developed rapidly. His unsentimental paintings of children playing, inspired by the Frome valley at Stapleton, were made in the same years that he was developing his dark Romantic style in exhibition works such as The Upas, or Poison Tree in the Island of Java. Danby moved to London in 1824, to escape his debts. He had initial success, selling his Sunset at Sea after a Storm (now in this museum's collection) to Sir Thomas Lawrence, and developed a dramatic style of painting apocalyptic scenes such as The Deluge (now in Tate Britain). But he suffered many setbacks in London, including the withdrawal of a commission by a patron, serious debt, the suspected plagiarism of one of his ideas, failure to become a Royal Academician and the breakdown of his marriage. He moved to Europe in 1829 with his many children and mistress, and struggled to make a living for a decade. His patron, the patient Gibbons, continued to provide loans and Danby is said to have yearned for the simple pleasures of his time in the Bristol area. After returning to London for a few years he finally settled in Exmouth, Devon, in 1846 where he enjoyed a fruitful period of painting and could indulge his passion for sailing.
Francis Danby lived a turbulent and chaotic life. He was born in County Wexford, Ireland, and the family later moved to Dublin. At the age of 19, Danby left for London and never seems to have returned home. On running out of money in London he walked the 120 miles back to Bristol where he settled, made a hasty and unwise marriage to Hannah Hardedge, and met the Bristol artists and a sympathetic patron, John Gibbons. During his Bristol years, 1813-24, he focused on the local landscape, initially by selling watercolour views of the Avon Gorge. In about 1818 he began painting seriously in oils, which he had only briefly used before. His style and technique developed rapidly. His unsentimental paintings of children playing, inspired by the Frome valley at Stapleton, were made in the same years that he was developing his dark Romantic style in exhibition works such as The Upas, or Poison Tree in the Island of Java. Danby moved to London in 1824, to escape his debts. He had initial success, selling his Sunset at Sea after a Storm (now in this museum's collection) to Sir Thomas Lawrence, and developed a dramatic style of painting apocalyptic scenes such as The Deluge (now in Tate Britain). But he suffered many setbacks in London, including the withdrawal of a commission by a patron, serious debt, the suspected plagiarism of one of his ideas, failure to become a Royal Academician and the breakdown of his marriage. He moved to Europe in 1829 with his many children and mistress, and struggled to make a living for a decade. His patron, the patient Gibbons, continued to provide loans and Danby is said to have yearned for the simple pleasures of his time in the Bristol area. After returning to London for a few years he finally settled in Exmouth, Devon, in 1846 where he enjoyed a fruitful period of painting and could indulge his passion for sailing.