Lot Essay
William Wilkie Collins, in recording the four pictures his father contributed to the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1822 (op. cit.), observed '"Chichester" and the "Woodcutters" were two of the painter's most successful landscapes. In the first the atmosphere is cool, gray and serene; the high-road with trees at the right, and the open common with figures talking near an old white horse, occupying the foreground; while in the distance rises the spire of Chichester Cathedral, surrounded by the level, open scenery, presented in nature by the view.'