Collection of six North Wiltshire landscapes

Inshaw painted a series of six farewell studies when he moved from Wiltshire to the Welsh Borders, chosing as his subject the mysterious Wiltshire landscape near Avebury. These vivid coloured aquatints are the first works that he produced in this technique. Those depicting the prehistoric monuments in the Avebury World Heritage Site point to the tradition of British Romanticism, of hallowed ancient monuments depicted in their landscape setting. Inshaw admired the work of Thomas Hardy and, like Hardy, is sensitive to the physical and spiritual idiosyncracies of the region's landscape, whether in association with human figures, with the dramatic prehistoric monuments of the area, or with its native wildlife. No aspect is wholly identifiable but the spirit of the place rings out.