One of Goodman's earliest recorded works is his depiction of the 1858 trial of Dr Simon Bernard over the attempted assassination of Napoleon III. The painting hung in the Tavistock Square home of Goodman's uncle, Sir John Simon (1818—1897), who worked on the trial as Edwin James' junior. The same year The Liverpool Academy exhibited Doctoring The Cane, which was then exhibited the following year by The British Institution on Pall Mall in London. The British Institution also exhibited Bible Stories in 1861.

In 1861 Goodman's painting of the Interior of The Cathedral of San Lorenzo, Genoa was exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy.

In 1862 The Liverpool Society of Fine Arts exhibited Il Monte della Croce, San Miniato, Florence and Interior of The Cathedral of San Lorenzo, Genoa).

A publication of 1859 refers to Goodman as a scene painter and goes on to describe Goodman's (and various siblings') appearance in an amateur play staged at the Baker Street, London home of another uncle, the composer Charles Kensington Salaman (1814—1901). The production received glowing reviews. A somewhat comical flyer from the same year, of a production at the Goodman family home at Mabledon Place in London, describes Goodman as a hammerteur artist (alluding to the fact that he also constructed the scenery).

Beginning in 1860 Goodman undertook extensive travel to France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain. He spent almost three years in Florence, beginning in 1861, refining his skills by copying Old Master paintings at the Uffizi and Pitti palaces. There he met fellow artist, Joaquín Cuadras, whom he painted several times.

One of Goodman's favourite destinations was Spain - he was fluent in Spanish. He travelled with Cuadras to Barcelona in 1862, where he spent almost a year, before returning alone to England and, later, Scotland. In Edinburgh, he resided for a short time during 1864 with his journalist brother, Edward, then an assistant to Edinburgh Courant publisher, James Hannay, whom he painted (exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1864 ), as well as author David Smith. Another work, entitled Head was also exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy the same year.

In 1864, now rejoined by Cuadras, Goodman travelled to Rome and then on to Saint-Nazaire in France where they set sail on a French steamer to the West Indies, arriving in Santiago, Cuba on May 9, 1864. Most of Goodman's time in the West Indies was spent in Santiago and Havana, Cuba, working as an artist and journalist and painting theatrical sets. He also appeared in at least one stage production, putting his fluency in Spanish to good use. Goodman and Cuadras were imprisoned for a short time in the Morro Castle in Santiago. During his time in Cuba, Goodman contributed articles and letters to the New York Herald, using the nom de plume el Caballero Inglese. In this capacity he travelled to Port Royal in Jamaica in August 1868 in connection with the laying of the undersea cable between Cuba and Jamaica. Eventually civil unrest forced him to flee to New York in January 1870 on board the American steamer Morro Castle.

He spent only a few months in the United States before returning to London in the first half of 1870 when he painted portraits of Sir Thomas Brassey MP, his wife, Lady Anna Brassey, their children, and Mr. Brassey senior. The Brassey portraits were hung at the Brassey estate at Normanhurst Court in Sussex. The same year he painted a Portrait of a Young Boy on a Horse, which found its way to a sale at Christies in London in July 1998.

In 1871 he exhibited a portrait of Evelyn, Daughter of G.J.Reid, Esq. of Tunbridge Wells at the Royal Academy and his portrait of his uncle, Serjeant Simon M.P. was displayed at the Royal Oak Hotel in Simon's constituency of Dewsbury, Yorkshire. Photographic evidence exists of three portraits from 1871—1872, entitled Master Nicholls, Mr N Birkenruth, and Mrs N Birkenruth.

In 1872 Goodman contributed a piece entitled A Cigarette Manufacturer At Havana to the London Society magazine. In 1873 he published an account of his years in Cuba, entitled The Pearl of the Antilles, or An Artist in Cuba, to favorable reviews (reprinted in Cuba in 1986). The book was based upon a series of humorous sketches first published in Charles Dickens' periodical All the Year Round. The same year he contributed some sketches of Santiago to The Graphic magazine.

The February, 1874 issue of Cassell's Magazine included two articles by Goodman titled "Saved From a Wreck" and "Cuba Without a Master." In April of that year he wrote another article for the same magazine called "A Holiday in Cuba", which he illustrated with a pretty Cuban girl looking through a barred window. That winter also saw the exhibition of oil paintings titled Young Castile and Voices of the Sea at London's Dudley and French Galleries, respectively. In 1876 he exhibited a drawing, The Language of the Face at The Black and White Exhibition at The Dudley Gallery and Morning Work at the London Exhibition of Fine Arts. The latter work was probably a trompe l'oeil painting, as it is described in a publication of the day as a housemaid is cleaning a window, which the spectator is meant to be looking through. The Mail describes it as a pretty housemaid cleaning a window, and seen through the plate glass, a novel idea cleverly worked out. The painting was sold during the exhibition.

In 1877 two pages of drawings of Russian peasantry by Goodman appeared in the Illustrated London News, as well as an illustration for a Wilkie Collins story, "A Bit for Bob" in the magazine's Christmas Number, entitled "A Little Baggage." Around this time, Goodman moved to Bradford, Yorkshire and lived with his sister, Alice for several years. Goodman contributed the same drawing to two books in 1879 - God is taking care of me to the Ellen Haile children's book Three Brown Boys and other Happy Children (the other main contributing artist was the renowned children's book illustrator Kate Greenaway) and Floy's first flight to The One Syllable Book. The same drawing appeared again, in 1885, as Obedient Bessie in a children's book called Little Ramblers and Other Stories. In 1877 he exhibited A Factory Girl depicting a northern England factory girl returning home from work, at The Dudley Gallery.

That same year Goodman scored two coups involving the new Chinese diplomatic missions to Europe. Liu Hsi-Hung, Chinese minister to the Court of Berlin, commissioned him to copy the National Gallery's Madonna in Prayer by Sassoferrato, reputedly the first commission given by a Chinese to an English artist. The painting was subsequently dispatched to Germany. He also painted His Excellency Kuo Ta-Jen (Kuo Sung-Tao), Chinese Minister to the Court of St. James's (China's first such ambassador), initially exhibited in 1878 at the Royal Academy and later at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.

The same year Goodman sent another full-length portrait of a A Chinese Lady of Rank (the sitter was Kuo Tai-Tai - the wife of Kuo-Ta-Jen) to the Royal Academy, after first previewing a preliminary study for Queen Victoria in March 1879 at Windsor Castle. Kuo Tai-Tai also featured in a group portrait by Goodman, together with her young child and child's nurse. This painting was later taken back to China by the ambassador.

Goodman's trip to Windsor might have led to The Queen's son, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, sitting for Goodman (The Prince never sat for another artist). His portrait was submitted to the Royal Academy in 1881. A court circular from Marlborough House dated July 28, 1884 notes that Goodman submitted the portrait of The Duke of Albany to the Prince and Princess of Wales, from where it was currently displayed at The Guildhall. The painting was purchased sometime between 1881 and 1884 by The National Hospital in Queen Square, London. The hospital has no record of the present whereabouts of the painting.

In the summer of 1883 Goodman sold two oil paintings at J.P. Mendoza's St. James's Gallery at King Street in London - Fresh and Pure (also known as Pure and Undefiled) and Candidate For The Front Row (also known as First at the Gallery Door). Goodman was a member of London's Savage Club and in 1883 submitted a drawing of the club president, Andrew Halliday, to the club tombola.

In 1884 Goodman offered a water colour, Longing Eyes, for 10 guineas, at the Liverpool Autumn Exhibition and the same year submitted two paintings to the City of London Society of Artists - Idle Dreams and In Possession. The latter work was of the two playing children of the artist and illustrator Harry Furniss.

In a departure from painting portraits, around October 1884 Goodman moved to Chalford in the Cotswolds to paint two landscapes of the valley below from the brow of a hill at Cowcombe Woods overlooking the village. He stayed in Chalford for at least five months.

Goodman contributed at least four essays to The Theatre during 1885 and 1886, entitled An English Ballet in Spain, Art Behind the Curtain, An Englishman on the Spanish Stage, and "Box and Cox" in Spanish.

Goodman is also credited with a portrait of the then Duke of Edinburgh (Victoria's second son Alfred). His last Royal Academy submission (1888) was a portrait entitled Mrs. Keeley in her 83rd Year which is recorded as having subsequently found its way to London's bohemian Savage Club, of which the artist was a member from 1873 to 1894 and where his brother Edward was chairman of the committee. Another Keeley painting, Mrs. Keeley At Fourscore (now housed at the Garrick Club) was exhibited at Institute of Oil Painters and Bond Street's Burlington Gallery in 1885. Goodman was an admirer of Mary Anne Keeley and her acting family, publishing an appreciation in 1895 entitled The Keeleys on the Stage and at Home, which contains engravings of several of his portrait paintings. Goodman's life interest in the theatre culminated in an appearance with Mrs. Keeley in a full-scale production on the stage of the Prince of Wales theatre on the night of January 16, 1884. At about the same time he painted the actress, Mrs. Alfred Mellon (née Sarah Woolgar) . Another actress whose portrait Goodman painted was Amy Sedgwick. A year after her death in 1897, her third husband presented the portrait to the Garrick Club, where it remained until 1969. Other arts-related personalities who were captured by Goodman's brush included Negro Delineator, E. W. Mackney, the dramatist Henry Pettitt and composer Sir George A. MacFarren (who also sat for Goodman's mother Julia).

In 1887 Goodman exhibited three portraits - Mary Anne Keeley, Fanny Stirling (both presumably loaned from The Garrick Club), and Grace Darling, at the Signor Palladiense Gallery, on Bond Street in London. The Keeley and Stirling portraits were also exhibited in 1887 at Messrs Hennah and Kent's studios in London's Old Kent Road.

In two consecutive annual exhibitions at the Institute of Oil Painters Goodman exhibited Mr Henry Russell (1889), Mr Lionel Brough (1890), and Kathleen, the latter of which was sold at the exhibition.

The following year his portrait of The Late Mr. Wilkie Collins at the age of 56 was shown at The Royal Society of British Artists.

In 1890 Goodman contributed at least one painting to an exhibition in New York. The proceeds from the sale of the paintings were to benefit the ailing Irish-born American artist Arthur Lumley (1837—1912).

On February 18, 1895 his sketch Fifteen Minutes Grace was performed at The Prince of Wales Club).

The Mr Henry Russell portrait was donated to The Savage Club in 1890, and they lent it to the Exhibition of Dramatic and Musical Art at The Grafton Galleries in 1897.

Around 1883 Goodman painted a fascinating trompe l'oeil depiction of the contents of a printseller's window (including the merchant himself, placing a figure in the display). Twelve carte-de-visite photographs are strung across the shop window, along with other photographs depicting artists and critics such as John Ruskin, Mariano Fortuny y Marsal and Augustus Sala.

The Printseller's Window (also known as The Printseller or A Print Seller's Window in The Strand) was displayed at various London galleries, including St. James's Gallery in 1883, the Burlington Gallery in Bond Street (together with Mrs. Keeley at Fourscore) from August 1885,Earls Court British and Foreign Art galleries Section, and at Imre Kiralfy's Venice in London exhibition at Olympia in 1892 (where the painting was entitled The Venetian Printseller). The painting was widely reported in the London and provincial newspapers of the day.

This impressive work was also displayed provincially at various locations, including The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool in 1883. It was offered for sale at the Liverpool Autumn Exhibition the same year, but priced at 315 pounds the painting did not find a buyer, causing the artist to re-exhibit it in 1884 at the Royal Scottish Academy. Other recorded provincial exhibitions which included The Printseller's Window are Folkestone Art Treasures Exhibition (1886) (together with his portrait of Wilkie Collins), Edinburgh Academy of Arts, and Goodman's own studio at 88 Kings Road in Brighton in 1891. The latest recorded date that The Printseller's Window was shown in Britain was at a show entitled 19th Century Society in 1894. The Printseller's Window was acquired by a Connecticut art dealer in 1965, and eventually by the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester in 1998.

The Printseller's Window is now considered an important example of its genre. The history of the painting and its ownership between the late 1890s and 1965 is unknown, and how it reached the United States is still a mystery.

The Printseller's Window was the subject of an exhibition, Walter Goodman's The Printseller's Window: Solving A Painter's Puzzle at the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester August 14, 2009—November 15, 2009. A catalog of the exhibition has been published.

Walter Goodman was one seven children, amonsgt whom were Edward, the travel writer, author, and sub-editor of The Daily Telegraph, and Miriam, the acclaimed pianist who often accompanied Walter on his musical and dramatic stage outings.

Apart from living overseas for fourteen years, notably in Italy, Spain, Cuba, New York, and with family in Bradford and Edinburgh, Goodman lived with his parents and siblings at numerous central London addresses.Around 1888 he moved from Notting Hill, London, to Brighton, where he opened a studio on the premises of The Photographic Company at 88 Kings Road. The Photographic Company was the premises of the husband of his sister Alice - the photographer Edmund Passingham (represented in the National Portrait Gallery). While in Sussex, Goodman acted as the Brighton correspondent for The Sunday Times.

On 10 October 1888 Goodman married Clara Isabel Blackiston(b. 1866), from Ashby de la Zouch, Leicester. They lived first in West Brighton (1888) then in Hove (1891).In 1892 Goodman is reported to be living in West Kensington, London, a necessity no doubt due to his appointment as press director of the International Horticultural Exhibition at Earls Court, London. In this capacity, Goodman was heavily involved in the staging of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show.

Walter and Clara had a son, Walter Russell in 1889, followed by Joaquin Sedgwick (1891), Reginald Arthur (1893), Julia Constance (1894) and Keeley John (1899).

Goodman probably left his family in Sussex and returned to live in London around 1900. The 1901 UK census lists Clara living as head of the family with the children at Henfield in Sussex. In 1911 Walter was living with his three eldest sons in Willesdon, London, whilst Clara was living in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire with their two youngest children.

Between 11 February and 1 July 1893 Goodman contributed a weekly essay People I Have Painted to Sala's Journal. Each essay detailed the often humorous circumstances surrounding a particular painting or series of paintings Goodman had created. The subjects of these essays were entitled:

The Emperor Of The French

Around 1859 Goodman was commissioned to produce a series of seven large (six feet by four feet) panoramic views illustrative of the Italian war of 1859, most of which would feature The French Emperor, Napoleon III. Two of these works were to be transparencies, designed to be artificially lit from behind. Goodman recorded that his cleaning lady almost ruined some of these works due to her over-zealousness and his own forgetfulness. The Emperor never sat for Goodman in person - all paintings were executed with help of the many photographs of Napoleon III that were to be found in London at the time. The paintings were intended for a Continental show and were destined to be shipped to Odessa. Before this, the series was privately exhibited in the apartment where they had been painted. At the time of writing, in 1893, Goodman had no knowledge of the whereabouts of the seven paintings.

Prince Leopold

In 1881, at Goodman's request, Prince Leopold sat for him at his London studio. Goodman notes that prior to the Prince's visit on February 5, 1881, he requested that his cleaning lady make the studio extra tidy as he was expecting a prince. During the sitting the Prince's sister, Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, Marchioness of Lorne also paid a visit to Goodman's studio. Prince Leopold was in failing health and further sittings took place in the somewhat warmer surroundings of the Prince's apartments at Windsor Castle. Prince Leopold died in 1884, and in that year the painting was exhibited at the The Guildhall.

His Excellency Kuo Sung Tao

In 1878, Goodman was commissioned by the Chinese Ambassador to Great Britain and France to paint his portrait. The minister in question's family name was Kuo Sung-Tao, and he held the official title of Kuo Ta-Jen. Goodman writes of the difficulties experienced while attempting to capture his subject's grand attire. The sittings took place at Goodman's home at Notting Hill, London, and he notes the wonder and excitement of the local inhabitants at the arrival of the ambassador's carriages and at the exotic occupants delivered to his home. By having his portrait painted, Kou Sung-Tao incurred the wrath and ridicule of his countrymen back home. To such an extent in fact that he returned the portrait to Goodman and requested his money back - which Goodman declined to do. Goodman states that he informed His Excellency if it was against the customs of his country for a mandarin to have his portrait painted, it was not less at variance with the rigid rules of the outer barbarian to return money.

A Chinese Lady Of Rank

The lady in question was one of the three wives of the Chinese Ambassador. Her name was Kuo Tai-Tai. Goodman goes to great lengths to explain her exotic appearance and that of her small child, Ying-Sung. The (eighteen) sittings took place in 1879 at the Chinese Legation at Portland Place, London (the present day Chinese Embassy). Also described is a reception held at the embassy at which the Prime Minister of the day, William Ewart Gladstone was present. The portrait was a group picture of Kuo Tai-Tai, her child Ying-Sung, and the child's nurse.

Mrs. Keeley At Fourscore

Jack Sheppard After Many Years

In the final essay he contributed to Sala's Journal, Goodman describes a 17-installment short story about a game of whist that he wrote for The Manchester Courier, entitled Romance of the Rubber.

Around 1890 Goodman painted a portrait of Brighton resident The Countess of Munster and this was exhibited in his Brighton Studio in 1891 together with The Printseller's Window and the Wilkie Collins portrait. He also exhibited a replica of his Chinese Ambassador portrait here the same year.

Also in 1891, Goodman tried to persuade The Garrick Club to purchase his portraits of Wilkie Collins and Mrs. Alfred Mellon, pledging half the proceeds to a fund to help relieve the financial difficulties of Robert Reece, who was severely ill. Presumably he failed in this effort as the whereabouts of these two paintings are unknown today.

In the late 1890s (probably 1898) Goodman was commissioned to travel to Pod?brady castle in Bohemia to paint the portrait of Prince Hohenlohe and that of his daughter Elisabeth. According to reports, both works were met with much success.

In 1901 Goodman authored a two-part article in the Magazine of Art entitled "Artists Studios: As They Were and As They Are." In the piece Goodman makes it clear that he was on familiar terms (at least enough so as to have been able to visit a number of their studios first hand) with many of the great painters of the Victorian Age, six of whom are portrayed in The Printseller's Window.

The Jewish Chronicle commissioned Goodman to draw a study of his mother, Julia Goodman on the occasion of her 90th birthday. It appeared in the 7 June 1902 edition of that publication, and in Booklover's Magazine in February of the following year.

In 1906 Goodman exhibited a portrait of his son, Keeley, at the Institute of Oil Painters in London. At the Exhibition of Jewish Art and Antiquities at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London in late 1906 he exhibited three works - The Late Sampson Lucas, Mrs Keeley in her 83rd year, and The Cuban Mulatto Girl.

From 1906 Goodman suffered from severe ill health, and was unable to continue painting. By 1908 he had fallen on hard times and in desperation wrote to the Jewish Chronicle asking for donations and financial assistance, giving his wife's Henfield address - even though by this time he had long returned to London was being cared for by his three eldest sons at his final address in Priory Park Road, Willesden, London. However, in December the same year The Strand Magazine provided some welcome financial assistance by publishing his essay Drapery Figures.

Walter Goodman died from cancer on 20 August 1912 at a nursing home in West Hampstead. His funeral was held on 24 August and he is buried in Hampstead Cemetery, North London. A small obituary appeared in the 30 August 1912 edition of The Jewish Chronicle and a more extensive obituary appeared in an unidentified newspaper, listing his notable achievements. These are the last known references to Walter Goodman in the public record.

Dates specified are the earliest recorded date the work was displayed, or in some cases the year it was completed.

Walter Goodman wrote these books:

• Pearl of The Antilles or An Artist in Cuba, London: H.S.King & Co. 1873 (reprinted in 1986 as Un Artista en Cuba. Letras Cubanas (Col. Testimonio). La Habana.) Available here at gutenberg.org
• The Keeleys On Stage and At Home, London: Bentley and Son 1895

Walter Goodman is known to have contributed to many books, periodicals, and publications. These have so far been identified:

• A Cigarette Manufacturer At Havana, London Society (1872)
• Sketches of Santiago, The Graphic (1873)
• Various sketches and stories, All The Year Round, (1873)
• Saved From a Wreck, Cassell's Magazine (1874)
• Cuba Without a Master, Cassell's Magazine (1874)
• A Holiday in Cuba, Cassell's Magazine (1874)
• Tomasso Salvino (cover engraving), Pictorial World (1875)
• The Pictorial World (cover drawing The Language of the Face) (1876)
• The Russian Peasantry, Illustrated London News (28 April 1877)
• A Little Baggage, Illustrated London News (Christmas Number, 1877)
• God is taking care of me, Three Brown Boys and Other Happy Children - Ellen Haile (1879)
• Floy's first flight, The One Syllable Book - Emma E. Brown (1879)
• Mrs. Keeley at Fourscore (drawing) Pall Mall Gazette, July 29, 1885
• Obedient Bessie, Little Ramblers and Other Stories. By favorite American authors (Cassell) (1885)
• An English Ballet in Spain, The Theatre (1885)
• Art Behind the Curtain, The Theatre (1886)
• An Englishman on the Spanish Stage, The Theatre (1886)
• Box and Cox in Spanish, The Theatre (1886)
• Untitled drawing of children Cassell's Magazine (c. 1888)
• People I Have Painted, Sala's Journal (1893)
• Artists Studios: As They Were and As They Are, Magazine of Art (1901)
• Julia Goodman (drawing), Jewish Chronicle, June 7, 1902
• Julia Goodman (drawing), Booklover's Magazine, February 1903
• Drapery Figures The Strand Magazine (1908)
• Romance of the Rubber, The Manchester Courier (date unknown)