THOMAS Hardy immortalised Wessex in his novels and poems. Three artists who share a common interest in the writer’s use of landscape, Dave Gunning, David Inshaw and Rob Pountney, have collaborated in a fascinating exhibition currently on show in the upstairs gallery at Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum.
Salisbury Cathedral and The Close feature in Jude the Obscure (Salisbury became Melchester in Hardy novels), and it is fitting that the exhibition is in the museum. In Jude the Obscure, Hardy based the college that Sue Bridehead attends on the training college for schoolmistresses that his sisters attended. This was the King’s House, now home to the museum.
Stonehenge plays a starring role at the tragic end of Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Robert Pountney’s works in the exhibition capture the stones in a dramatic context.
Landscapes of Thomas Hardy’s Wessex is a beautifully crafted exhibition and well worth a visit. It runs until April 14.
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