Like many of his generation in Britain, Sandys struggled with the relationship between art as observation of the world and as an act of imagination. These studies are witness to the young artist's efforts to train himself. The small landscapes are painted en plein air, on site; the small figures were added later, copied from other artists' work. He painted quickly, experimenting with the effects possible in oil. Sandys’ temperament allied him with the Pre-Raphaelites, young British artists fascinated with the naturalistic current in the art of the early Renaissance.
