Paul Falconer Poole RA (1806-1879) was a well-known British painter from Bristol, famous for his subject and genre paintings.
Life and Work
Poole taught himself how to paint and became famous for his amazing use of color, poetic style, and dramatic flair. He first displayed his work at the Royal Academy when he was twenty-five, with a piece called “The Well,” which showed a scene in Naples. After a seven-year break, he exhibited again with “Farewell, Farewell” in 1837, and then with other works like “The Emigrant’s Departure,” “Hermann and Dorothea,” and “By the Waters of Babylon.”
In 1843, Poole’s career started to thrive with his painting named “Solomon Eagle”. This painting won him a £300 prize at the Cartoon Exhibition.
After displaying “The Surrender of Syon House,” he was elected as an associate of the Royal Academy in 1846 and became a full member in 1861. In the 1850s, he lived near Camden Town at 43 Camden Road Villas (now 203 Camden Rd).
Poole’s paintings can be split into two main types: peaceful and dramatic. A good example of his peaceful style is “May Day” (1852). In the Winter Exhibition of 1883-1884 at Burlington House, many of his works from both styles were shown.
One of his early dramatic paintings was “Solomon Eagle Exhorting the People to Repentance during the Plague of 1665” (1843). Other dramatic works include “The Messenger Announcing to Job the Irruption of the Sabeans and the Slaughter of the Servants” (1850) and “Robert, Duke of Normandy and Arlette” (1848).
Later, Poole created more dramatic pieces like “The Prodigal Son” (1869), “The Escape of Glaucus and Ione with the Blind Girl Nydia from Pompeii” (1860), and “Constance Sent Adrift by the Constable of Alla, King of Northumberland” (1868). His calmer pieces, such as “Song of Troubadours” (1854) and “Goths in Italy” (1851), show his range, with “Goths in Italy” being an important historical piece.
“The Seventh Day of the Decameron” (1857) highlights Poole’s skill with color. His pastoral paintings, like “The Mountain Path” (1853), “The Water-cress Gatherers” (1870), and “The Shepston Maiden” (1872), are soft and gentle. In contrast, his grander works, such as “Vision of Ezekiel” (National Gallery), “Solitude” (1876), “Entrance to the Cave of Mammon” (1875), “The Dragon’s Cavern” (1877), and “Lion in the Path” (1873), are bold and capture the dramatic and scenic beauty of nature which included mountains and clouds.

