"The Enchanted Castle," Francis Danby, c. 1841.

The great Irish Romanticist Danby (1793-1861) is considered one of the significant British painters of the period.

The son of a farmer and educated in Dublin, he wound up in Bristol where he sold trifling watercolors and sent his most significant works to London for exhibition. He was part of a group called the Bristol School, artists who met regularly to wander the surrounding countryside to sketch and paint. Danby was the central figure for a while and his involvement helped him develop his style.

He had his first success in 1820, and he moved to London to be inducted into the Royal Academy, only to leave a decade later after his wife left him for another artist. He moved to Geneva, rarely painted for about a decade, then came back to greater success than ever. It was in his later period that he did this painting, inspired by the Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche, with Psyche approaching Cupid's castle in the setting sun.

His work is now featured in many galleries and museums; unlike some other Romantics, he never seemed to fall from favor.

From the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

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