AN EXHIBITION of paintings and prints by an often overlooked master of British landscape art, Leslie Moffat Wood, will open at St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery, Lymington, later this month.

English Idyll will reveal a vanished England of bustling wharfs, ramshackle buildings and tranquil countryside.

Ward (1888-1978) was little known outside his native Dorset, but this exhibition confirms his position as one of England’s most significant 20th century painter-printmakers.

His evocative etchings, lithographs, linocuts and wood engravings capture a disappearing world of tranquil countryside and bustling waterways.

Idyllic views of Poole Harbour and the Isle of Purbeck reflect his love of the Dorset landscape, but he travelled widely in search of pastoral subjects and took delight in the decaying buildings of Britain’s historic towns.

His passion for working boats and industrial architecture took him to the Thames, Medway and Humber. The exhibition runs from April 25 to June 6.