Career
Born in London, he entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1805. Except for one year he exhibited annually at the Royal Academy from 1811 until his death. He was elected Associate of the Royal Academy on 1 November 1830 and Resident Advisor on 10 February 1840.
He retired as an academician on 28 May 1863.
His early works were mostly landscapes, but the influence of artists like George Morland (1763–1804) can be seen in the importance he gave to the figurative element in his paintings. Witherington enjoyed painting English scenery and never travelled abroad.
Like his contemporary, Augustus Wall Callcott, Research Associate, he creates a composition with a lively foreground of figures and animals, combined with a landscape with distant vistas glimpsed through the wood.