Noble European artist very taken by Mrs Simpson (8)
I believe the answer is:
margrave
'noble' is the definition.
(margrave is a kind of noble)
'european artist very taken by mrs simpson' is the wordplay.
'european artist' becomes 'ra' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts. I am not sure about the 'european' bit.).
'very' becomes 'v' (common abbreviation).
'taken by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'mrs simpson' becomes 'marge' (I've seen this in other clues).
'ra'+'v'='rav'
'rav' placed inside 'marge' is 'MARGRAVE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for margrave that I've seen before include "German nobleman" , "More than count" , "German noble" .)