Most of the following group of landscapes by James Arthur O'Connor date to the last ten years of the artist's life, when he made a return visit to Ireland and rediscovered its romantic landscape and a trip to the Continent with his wife, where again the scenery had a great influence on his work. Artistic life in London O'Connor felt was at a low ebb, but he found life in Paris and Germany stimulating, and that there was much interest in his pictures from European collectors. By the mid 1830's he was back in London, exhibiting his paintings at the Royal Academy, the British Institution and Suffolk Street, but he found life increasingly difficult. There seemed to be little enthusiasm for his work, and his health was failing, with his eyesight weakening, and he had virtually no income. Despite a last commission from Captain Coote for a painting of Castle Coote Demesne, which was painted in 1840, he died in poverty the following year, leaving his wife destitute. A sale of his work was held in these Rooms the year after his death, presumably to benefit his widow, on 12 February 1842