Winchelsea

This view of Winchelsea, a town in south-west England, displays Goodwin’s great skill as a watercolorist. Though small in size, the image appears to capture a great expanse of landscape, achieved through a low view point that hovers somewhere just above the posts near the water-filled ditch. Using a bright, clear Pre-Raphaelite palette, Goodwin captures intricate details such as the flying birds, barely more than single dots of pigment, with meticulous precision of touch. The artist was a protégé of John Ruskin, whose insistence on precise naturalism clearly informs early landscapes such as this.