Tennant was a modest man, of whom one of his friends observed after his death that 'he never heard him say unkind words to, or of, anybody'. He was born in Camberwell and largely self-taught, apart from a stint working in the studio of marine painter William Anderson. There, he discovered his talent for drawing and realised that a life working in a merchant's office was not for him. He spent most of his long career travelling around Britain painting landscapes, exhibiting a large number of pictures at the Society of British Artists. He lived in Kent and Surrey, and retired to Wales. He was capable of sensitive effects. This oil sketch of about 1850 was painted on paper (then laid to canvas), and so is likely to have been at least started out-of-doors. The sky is particularly liquid and luminous. A shepherd looks out over the weald of Surrey from a sandy ridge, whilst one of his flock strays to the right foreground.