The Royal West of England Academy is exploring the influence of Thomas Hardy country on the painters of the Slade School of Art between 1880 and 1914

Dorset Heath with Trees (circa 1905). Oil sketch on paper on card© private collection
A lost chapter in the history of British art, the fin de siecle period in Dorset is one that drew some of the finest talents of the age to the area around Purbeck and Corfe Castle in Dorset, which for a time became an informal mini colony of artists that rivaled Newlyn and St Ives.
Augustus John and Charles Conder were among the many artists - most of whom had some connections with the Slade School of Art - who partied and painted across the Purbeck hills and Swanage.
This hotbed of painting is now being explored at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol, where more than 60 artworks, influenced by Hardy's Wessex between 1880 and 1914, are on display.
According to exhibition curator Gwen Yarker, whose book Inquisitive Eyes: Slade Painters in Edwardian Wessex gives the exhibition its name, Thomas Hardy “looked over the shoulders” of a procession of artists that also included Philip Wilson Steer, , Henry Tonks, Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell - all of them lured by the bucolic, Hardy-esque charms of Dorset.
Yarker says the great author "actively encouraged" this artistic invasion and keenly reviewed their interpretations of "his" landscapes, even suggesting locations that artists might paint.
Some 300 artists worked in the region during the period 1880 and 1914, many of them roaming the hills around Purbeck, in search of subjects to paint.
For the top landscape painters of the period, the area offered piles of painterly potential, including disused clay, chalk and lime pits, heathland, peninsulas, a remarkable geology and a remoteness from encroaching modernity.
But as well as familiar names, the RWA exhibition introduces some largely forgotten figures of British art who were inspired by Wessex at the turn of the century, such as John Everett (1876-1949), the Dorchester-born painter who was at the centre of a fascinating circle of Slade artists who were captivated by the landscape of Wessex.
Everett was a prolific landscape and maritime artist who also became an Official War Artist during the First World War. He excelled in depicting the shifting effects of light shining through clouds and on the surface of moving water and was a friend of William Orpen, Henry Tonks, Charles Conder and Thomas Hardy.
Together with his larger-than-life mother, Augusta, he introduced many Slade artists and their painter friends to the Dorset landscape.
Augusta Everett’s house, in Fitzroy Street in London, was home to Orpen, Augustus John and others while they studied at the Slade. Her Dorset holiday house in Swanage welcomed Tonks and Steer - then teaching at the Slade - as well as Orpen, John and Charles Conder to enjoy and interpret the Dorset landscape.
A number of the paintings in the exhibition, which resulted from these summer trips, have emerged from private collections for the first time in many years - including from the Everett family - to provide a show of surprises, new discoveries and quite a few important paintings not seen for 100 years.
John Everett

John Everett, Gad Cliff, Worbarrow Bay (circa 1910). Oil on canvas© Royal Museums Greenwich
Evelyn Chasten

Evelyn Cheston, Creech Barrow, Dorset (1910). Oil on canvas© Manchester City Art Gallery
Henry Tonks

Henry Tonks, The Lost Path (1905/6). Oil on canvas© Private Collection
Philip Wilson Steer

Philip Wilson, Steer Moon Rising over the Downs (1908). Oil on canvas© Private collection
Arthur Friedenson

Arthur Friedenson, Breezy Wareham© Private collection
Augustus John

Augustus John, The Blue Pool (1910). Oil on panel© Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museum
Charles Conder

Charles Conder, Swanage (1900). Oil on cardboard© Government Art Collection
Harry van der Weyden

Harry van der Weyden, Cliff End Studland (1909-10). Oil on paper on board© Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum
Roger Fry

Roger Fry, Studland Bay, Dorset (1911). Oil on canvas© Rochdale Art Gallery
- Inquisitive Eyes: Slade Painters in Edwardian Wessex, 1900-1914 is at the Royal West of England Academy, Bristol until June 12 2016. Follow the academy on Twitter @RWABristol and Facebook. The accompanying book is available to buy online.
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