Here we are in the second decade of the 21st century, and the 20th century — the one in which most of us grew up — is already turning into history, something to be viewed from afar, as if from a boat that has weighed anchor. I felt that strongly when looking at the paintings of John Piper (1903-1992) on view at Blenheim Palace.

No one, to my mind at least, has recorded the landscape of that eventful hundred years quite like he has; and it is joy to see views of gates and lodges, bridges and temples, plus of course the great baroque palace itself, gathered together and put on public display for the first time.

But how did these lovely pictures come to be painted in the first place? The Duke of Marlborough told me: “I went out to lunch at a friend’s house and saw some paintings by John Piper; then I simply wrote him a letter and asked him to come to Blenheim.”

The result was that in 1983 Piper started capturing the spirit of the place in a most beguiling way. Here, for instance, is the Temple of Diana, where Winston Churchill proposed to Clementine Hozier in 1908, and here too are storm clouds lowering in an ominous sort of way above the bridge, with the palace in the background.

Churchill said: “At Blenheim I took two important decisions: to be born and to marry. I am happily content with the decisions I took on both occasions.”

Piper lived until his death 20 years ago at Fawley Bottom Farmhouse (known as the Bum by John Betjeman), near Henley on Thames. He moved there with Myfanwy Evans in 1935; and the pair were married two years later when Piper’s divorce from his first wife, Eileen Holding, came through. In his early career he worked as an abstract painter, but just as he was achieving success in that field his interest in architecture and landscape took over — thanks, some say, to his friendship with Betjeman who lived not far away at Uffington.

Even at Epsom School, in Surrey, he had been interested in guidebooks, producing his own as a result of bicycling about and visiting churches galore; and this interest was revived with his collaboration with Betjeman in 1938 to produce Oxon, The Shell Guide to Oxfordshire — which, curiously enough, excluded Oxford itself, perhaps because Betjeman was about to publish his own An Oxford University Chest, which appeared the same year.

His paintings of Blenheim, like those of Windsor (and the Queen Mother had 26 of those, so worried was she that the castle lay in the Luftwaffe’s flight path), capture the essence of Englishness; Piper really loved what he saw but at the same time seemed worried about the future — that is now.

Before the war, Piper was also involved in the Recording Britain project launched by Kenneth Clark, who in 1931 had been appointed keeper of Fine Art at the Ashmolean. During the war his reputation was made as a war artist, recording the effects of bombing, particularly in Coventry. Apt, therefore, that his best known post-war work should be his window in the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral.

But we are lucky living in Oxfordshire, because so many lesser-known works abound here. I don’t know what has happened to the many set designs he produced for productions at the Kenton Theatre in Henley, but anyone can go and see windows designed by Piper at St Peter’s Church in Wolvercote or, for that matter, at St Mary the Virgin in Turville, or St Mary’s in Fawley, or St Paul’s in Pishill, or St Bartholomew’s in Nettlebed. Then there are tapestries (and a window) at Magdalen College, and yet more windows in Nuffield College — to name but a few.

After visiting the exhibition (at Blenheim until April 9), so beautifully put together by Jeri Bapasola, I for one feel inspired to seek out all these works. In particular I shall go and re-examine the mural at the River and Rowing Museum in Henley. It is on loan from P&O and I saw it first aboard the original liner SS Oriana when I was en route for Egypt in 1961. I shall also be one of the first in the queue to visit the museum’s exhibition of the Gyselynck collection of Piper paintings scheduled to run from March 3 to Ocober 8.

Dorchester Abbey, too, will stage an exhibition entitled John Piper and the Church, from April 21-June 10.