An exhibition at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester explores the evolving relationship between British artists and the landscape from the mid-19th century through the late 20th century. Titled British Landscapes: A Sense of Place, the show features a collection focused largely on early- to mid-20th century works, tracing how artists have engaged with geography, history, and national identity through their interpretation of nature.

Central figures in the exhibition include Paul Nash, Ivon Hitchens, David Jones, CRW Nevinson, Edward Wadsworth, Graham Sutherland, and Eric Ravilious—many of whom were shaped by the trauma and aftermath of the World Wars. Nash, who described himself as “a war artist without a war” during the interwar period, and his contemporaries present landscapes imbued with psychological tension between modernist abstraction and traditional pastoral themes.

Ivon Hitchens’ painting Curved Barn (1922), the gallery’s emblematic piece, exemplifies this interplay. The work distorts the rural scene with swirling, dynamic forms while preserving its comforting pastoral essence. Donated by Hitchens before the gallery’s establishment in 1982, the painting inaugurated a collection now regarded as one of the strongest regional holdings of modern British art, second only to that of the Tate.

The exhibition’s narrative spans from Samuel Palmer’s romantic 1857 work The Rising Moon to Michael Andrews’ 1994-95 Thames Painting: The Estuary, which metaphorically addresses transitions between land and sea, life and death, and tradition and modernity. The curators emphasize how artists have often turned to the landscape as a refuge or site of resistance amid periods of war and social upheaval.

The show presents works shaped by shifting social and political conditions. For example, Mark Gertler’s 1916 Near Swanage evokes a yearning for sanctuary through abstracted garden forms, while CRW Nevinson and Edward Wadsworth reflect their prewar involvement with Vorticism before moving toward more subdued landscapes influenced by mechanization and trauma. Nevinson’s Sussex Downs (1922) and Wadsworth’s Ladle Slag, Old Hill (1919) maintain echoes of modernist geometry that convey a sense of alienation.

Paul Nash’s pieces from the First World War and interwar period depict landscapes scarred by conflict and recovery, including his 1918 work Void showing desolate battlefields and his 1920s wood engravings of coastal defenses. Critics note how Nash’s focus shifted from wartime devastation to a preoccupation with nature’s defenses, reflecting lingering psychological effects of combat.

The interwar segment includes works by Ethelbert White and David Jones that introduce brighter, more fantastical interpretations of the British countryside. Hitchens’ later paintings showcase a progression toward panoramic, fluid compositions, capturing the South Downs and rivers near Midhurst with subtle chromatic bands. His 1940 Blue Shadows, created after fleeing London during the Blitz, conveys both a celebration of natural light and underlying anxiety.

More than half of the pieces on display were acquired following a significant 2006 expansion of Pallant House by architect Colin St John Wilson. The exhibition’s geographic focus on southern England reflects both the gallery’s location and a resistance to cultural homogenization in contemporary Britain. Visitors experience not only the artworks but also the very landscapes and environs that inspired them, enhancing the exhibition’s theme of place as a dynamic and contested aspect of British identity.