Danby was born near Wexford, the son of a country squire who moved to Dublin in 1807. He entered the drawing school of the Royal Dublin Society and studied with James Arthur O'Connor (1792-1841), "the Irish Claude", with whom he came to London in 1813. Having spent all his money he walked to Bristol and became a drawing master there. He became the centre of a group of artists who sketched and exhibited together. He showed work at the British Institution in 1820 and at the Royal Academy in 1821. He was elected A.R.A. in 1825. He had moved to London by 1824, and in 1825 visited Norway. In 1829 he fled from his creditors to Paris leaving his wife and family. He was later joined by Miss Evans, his mistress, with whom he wandered about Europe, settling in Switzerland in 1832, but returning to Paris in 1836. After Miss Evan's death in 1837 he came to London again, but settled in Exmouth in 1847. (Andrew Wilton, British Watercolors: 1750 to 1850, Oxford: Phaidon, 1977, 183)