Burton Water-piece voted Ireland's Favorite Painting

The Irish public has picked a painting that remains behind lock and key most of the time as its favorite painting.

William Burton's Hellelil and Hildebrand, The Meeting on the Turret Stairs won 22% of the public vote in a TV competition to find the most loved piece of art in Ireland.

The painting, based on Danish mythology, shows two tragic lovers meeting for the last time on a stairs.

It's a watercolor, painted by little-known Irish artist William Burton, in 1864.

Because it's sensitive to light, it is only opened to view at the National Gallery in Dublin for three hours every week.

But that hasn't stopped the rich colorful and romantic piece from winning the Irish public's heart.

The painting beat off Carravaggio's "The Taking of Christ", Louis Le Brocquy's "A Family" and other works by Paul Henry, Jack Yeats and William Leech to take the accolade.

Announcing the winner President Michael D Higgins said: "It's an extraordinarily detailed and very beautiful picture. The drama of the painting is in the movement of the bodies. I see a kind of sensuality in this painting".

The painting had been championed on the TV series by Sharon Corr, from the band The Corrs, who said her husband had taken her to see the painting on their first date. "It was so special and we've brought our kids back as well, like an anniversary," she said.

Broadcaster Mike Murphy, who presented the Masterpiece documentary said: "I'm delighted the Burton piece won. It's like a still from a movie, a really well-dressed movie. We're a nation of romantics, we love romance. I think it's going to be etched in Irish consciousness from here on in."

The painting is based on a Danish ballad, that tells the story of heroine Hellelil falls in love with her body, Hildebrand, but her father disapproves.

He orders her seven brothers to kill him, but Hildebrand kills the father and six of the brothers.

In the end Hellilil intervenes to save the life of the final brother

Hildebrand dies of his wounds and Hellelil also dies, from a broken heart.

Rather than paint the bloodshed and horrors of the killings, Burton focuses on the romantic love, and imagines the lovers' tender final meeting on a turret staircase.

Burton was born in Corofin, Co Clare in 1816 and was the son of a painter.

Another of his works, from 1841 called "The Arran Fisherman's Drowned Child" also hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland.

In 1874 he gave up painting completely after being appointed director of the National Gallery in London. He died in 1900.

The watercolor - perhaps because of the mystique lent to it from its limited viewing hours, and perhaps from the sense of romance that it displays - is one of the most popular prints and postcards for sale in the National Gallery.

The TV series about Ireland's favorite painting has boosted public interest in the wonderful works of art that hang in the country's galleries.

The National Gallery said the footfall during the past six weeks has been 20,000 greater than normal.

Admission is free to the gallery, which contains the majority of the finalists in the competition.