LOST pictures depicting real-life scenes from author Thomas Hardy's Wessex are being displayed for the first time in almost 100 years after they were found in a trunk.

The 37 images of locations immortalised in the writer's novels were created by artist John Everett, whose family were friends with the Hardy.

In 1924, the English painter travelled around 'Hardy Country' and produced small oil sketches on the spot.

He even managed to paint an elderly Hardy relaxing in the garden of his home at Max Gate, Dorchester.

Everett turned the oil sketches into aquatints – a print made by etching a copper plate with nitric acid and using resin and varnish to produce areas of tonal shading.

The images were to be used in a book but it was never published and they were tossed into a chest and forgotten about.

They were unearthed by art historian Gwen Yarker while she was putting together an exhibition on Everett at the National Maritime Museum in Bristol where she is curator.

She visited the Everett's grandchildren and found the set of aquatints in a chest underneath other pictures.

The family had no idea how rare and important they were.

The collection has now gone on display in a selling exhibition at Duke's Auctioneers of Dorchester, with prices ranging from £250 to £350.

Some of the famous landscapes featured in Hardy's works include Puddletown Heath, which he called Weatherbury.

After his book was shelved, Everett held an exhibition of his Hardy Country aquatints at the Camera Club in London in 1925, the only time they have been seen together publicly since.

Mrs Yarker said: "Everett cycled round Dorset with Hardy who was very interested to see what artists made of his Wessex.

"These artists would read Hardy's novels at night and then go out in the day to paint his landscapes.

"These pictures are an incredible fusion of these two people, a relationship that hasn't really been told before."

She added: "It isn't quite a full set, we think he did 40 and we only have 37, but this is the first time they have been on display together since 1925."

Everett came from a high profile Dorchester family and enrolled at the Slade School of Art in London after his father died.

He went on to become a prolific landscape and maritime artist, and was also an official war artist during the First World War.

The exhibition runs until September 21.