Voted Ireland's favourite Painting in 2012. 'The Meeting on the Turret Stairs' (1864) depicts a young soldier stealing an illicit kiss from his beloved as they pass on a turret stair. The princess's father regarded the young soldier as an unsuitable match for his daughter and ordered his sons to kill him. The painting captures the poignant final embrace of the ill-fated lovers. The artist Frederic William Burton was from Corofin, Co Clare. The image is one of the most popular in the National Gallery's collection. It is viewed as one of the most romantic paintings in Ireland. There have even been marriage proposals made before it.