^
Died on 10 February 1861: Francis
Danby, British artist born on 16 November 1793.
— English painter of Irish birth. He was a landowner’s son and studied
art at the Dublin Society. In 1813 he visited London, then worked in Bristol,
initially on repetitious watercolors of local scenes: for example View
of Hotwells, the Avon Gorge (1818). In about 1819 he entered the cultivated
circle of George Cumberland (1754-1849) and the Rev. John Eagles (1783-1855).
Danby’s discovery of the ‘poetry of nature’ in local scenery and insignificant
incident was influenced by the theories of Eagles, published as The
Sketcher (1856), and, less directly, by those of William Wordsworth,
who had been associated with Bristol earlier in the century. Danby’s distinctive
work began with the small panel paintings he produced for his Bristol audience.
Boy Sailing a Little Boat (1822.) recalls the rustic scenes of William
Collins and the Bristol artist Edward Villiers Rippingille, but Danby
emphasized the effect of sun and shade rather than sentiment
Danby became the best-known member of the
Bristol school of painters but preferred to exhibit more ambitious paintings
in London. The Upas, or Poison-tree in the Island of Java attracted
considerable attention when first shown at the British Institution in 1820,
by its large scale (168x229cm) and sublime motif: a despairing adventurer
coming upon the remains of his predecessors in the moonlit poisoned valley.
It has deteriorated badly, like many of his works. Disappointed Love
(1821) was his first Royal Academy exhibit. It differs from his Bristol
works in its narrative content and in the pathetic fallacy by which the
oppressive trees and wilting weeds echo the girl’s despair.
When Danby moved to London in 1824 he abandoned
naturalistic landscape and contemporary genre subjects to concentrate on
painting poetical landscapes in the manner of Claude
Lorrain and J.
M. W. Turner’s Snow
Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps (1812), and also
large biblical scenes to rival John
Martin. Danby’s relationship with Martin was ambiguous, but undoubtedly
competitive. Danby was elected ARA following the exhibition at the Royal
Academy in 1825 of the Delivery of Israel out of Egypt (Exodus.
xiv) (1825). His poetic treatment of landscape seems to have inspired Martin’s
Deluge, which was shown the following year at the British Institution.
Danby himself was already contemplating painting a Deluge and his An
Attempt to Illustrate the Opening of the Sixth Seal in turn owed much
to Martin’s conception of the Sublime.
Danby quarreled with the Royal Academy in
1829, when not elected RA (Constable
won by one vote). At the same time his marriage had collapsed, and he had
taken a mistress; his wife left London with the Bristol artist, Paul Falconer
Poole, whom she subsequently married. The ensuing scandal forced Danby to
move abruptly to Paris in 1830. Between 1831 and 1836 he worked in Geneva,
producing chiefly watercolors and topographical paintings. He then lived
in Paris, copying Old Master paintings. He returned to London late in 1838
where Deluge (1840.) reestablished his reputation when exhibited
privately in Piccadilly, London, in May 1840. A huge rock rises in the midst
of the flood, swarming with figures who struggle to gain the highest point.
Their diminution implies immensity. The color is appropriately, but uncharacteristically,
somber. Despite its success, it was his last work of this type.
Danby continued to paint poetic fantasy landscapes
throughout the 1840s and 1850s (e.g. Enchanted Castle - Sunset,
1841), although they became increasingly unfashionable. He also produced
landscapes and marine paintings, which derive in color and conception, although
not in execution, from those of Turner. These found admirers, although they
were too rich in color and imprecise in detail for wide popularity. Evening
Gun (1848, destroyed, but replica exists), showing naval vessels in
harbor, was well received at the Royal Academy in 1848 and the Paris Exposition
Universelle of 1855. Danby moved to Exmouth, Devon, in 1847 where he built
boats and painted. He was embittered by a life of nearly constant debt and
by his failure to gain academic honors. He died a few days after Poole was
elected RA. Two of his sons, James Francis Danby (1816-75) and Thomas Danby
(1817-86), became painters.
— LINKS
— The
Deluge (1840, 284x452cm) _ This painting depicts the story of the Flood
as told in the book of Genesis (6:12 - 8:22). It shows the terrible
punishment brought down by a wrathful God upon sinful mankind.
— Scene
from A Midsummer Night's Dream (20x28cm). |
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