Edward Williams, a widely respected landscape painter, had six sons who were all highly accomplished Victorian landscape artists. As a result of the Williams' financial success and artistic acclaim, Edward moved the family into the comfortable and then somewhat more rural Barnes area of Surrey in 1846. The family rapidly came to be known as the Williams School, and even occasionally, the Barnes School of Artists during the height of their renown between the late 1830s and 1870s. As the youngest member, Alfred Walter Williams continued to develop the School's rural landscape painting traditions, consequently securing the family's legacy as one of the most successful of any Victorian group of artists.