Constable's naturalism and outdoor study were controversial in his lifetime but influential later. Coldstream was an exponent of realism and of working outdoors in a field at Rodwell, Baylham, Suffolk. His friends Graham Bell (standing) and Igor Anrep are looking towards Lord de Sausmarez's park, Shrublands.

Coldstream had recently visited the poet WH Auden. His fascination with maps, travel and geography inspired Coldstream to explore the ways observation can confirm one's position on a map. His picture quastions how we see landscape and recommends an empirical, objective view.