Gulliver diverting the Emperor of Lilliput. 'The Emperor was so much delighted, that he ordered this entertainment to be continued for several days, and once was pleased to be lifted up to give the word of command.'

Intended as a satire on contemporary politics and religion Gulliver's Travels was published by Jonathan Swift in 1726. In the first part of the satire, Lemuel Gulliver, a surgeon on a merchant ship, is shipwrecked on the island of Lilliput where every thing and person has the proportion of an inch to the foot scale of the world as we know it. The ridiculous nature of the acts of this diminutive race are described, as is the pomp of their emperor, the civil feuds of the inhabitants and the war with their neighbours across the channel. Gulliver goes on to travel to three other destinations with similar fantastical distortions.

Works by Downard are rare. Some of his later landscapes show Pre-Raphaelite influence, particularly that of Holman Hunt.