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Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1824, 'Sunset at Sea after a Storm' was promptly purchased by the Royal Academy's president, Sir Thomas Lawrence, thus establishing the young artist's renown. A month or so earlier it had been shown at the Bristol Institution in Park Street just as Danby was fleeing to London to escape his 'Bristol creditors. Partly inspired by accounts of Gericault's 'Raft of the Medusa', this brilliant description of a dramatic sunset was also to inspire both John Martin and J.M.W. Turner and it remains one of the most potent images of European romantic painting.
| Purchased with the assistance of the Museums and Galleries Commission, National Heritage Memorial Fund, Penraven Bequest and the Friends of Bristol Art Gallery, 1982. | museum no. K5008 |