A regular supporter of the London exhibitions, particularly the New Watercolour Society, Warren specialised in forest subjects, rendering them with an almost photographic realism which was criticised by Ruskin as too mechanical. The theme of Robin Hood clearly fascinated him. Another treatment of the same subject as our picture, dated the same year, is in the Royal Collection at Osborne, and a picture of The Greendale Oak, Sherwood Forest was on the London art market in 1982. In the New Forest, Warren's only R.A. exhibit (1874), also seems to have featured Robin Hood. The subject was not as popular with Victorian artists as might be imagined, although Maclise exhibited a picture of Robin Hood entertaining Richard Coeur de Lion (Madame Tussaud's) at the Royal Academy in 1839.