Clater continued to send many pictures to the Royal Academy, British Institution.
They were usually of a quietly humorous character, scenes from domestic and provincial life, and executed in a manner based on that of the Dutch genre painters.
In the Walker Art Gallery at Liverpool there is a picture by him representing 'A Chief of Gipsies dividing Spoil with his Tribe.'
Others which attracted attention were 'The Fortune-Teller Dressing for a Masquerade,’ 'The Morning Lecture,’ 'Christmas in the Country,’ 'Sir Roger de Coverley,’ 'The Music Lesson,’ 'The Smugglers' Cave,’ 'Sunday Morning,’ 'Preparing for the Portrait,’ &c. Clater resided for the latter portion of his life in Chelsea.
So prolific a painter as he was is always liable to incur difficulties in disposing of his pictures; Clater was no exception, and as his pictures latterly failed to find purchasers, he became involved in pecuniary troubles, and had to be relieved from the funds of the Royal Academy.