View of Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament, with a hay barge and other shipping in the foreground

The artist was the eldest son and pupil of the Dublin-born landscape painter Francis Danby, A.R.A. (1793-1861). James Francis exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1842 to 1876, as well as at the British Institution and the Society of British Artists. He specialised in scenes of sunrise and sunset which resembled his father's works in their execution.