Tasmanian artist Neil Haddon has won the 2018 Hadley's Art Prize, believed to be the world's richest landscape art prize, pocketing $100,000 for his work The Visit.

The honour is awarded to what is deemed to be the best portrayal of the Australian landscape that acknowledges the past, with Haddon's painting depicting British author HG Wells cycling through a Tasmanian landscape.

The famous The War of the Worlds author visited Australia in the 1930s but did not make it to Tasmania.

But the opening pages of his science-fiction book, which tells the story of a Martian invasion of Earth, make reference to the decimation of Tasmania's native people.

"The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of 50 years," the first chapter reads.

"Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?"

Haddon drew upon this reference and the fact that Wells dreamed up his novel while cycling around Surrey in England, where Haddon was born.

In The Visit, Haddon, a university lecturer who has called Tasmania home for 22 years, brought together elements of his own birthplace, Wells and the Tasmanian landscape.

"Wells was a keen cyclist," Haddon said.

"As he rode, he planned The War of the Worlds, imagining the extermination of the human race by aliens.

"I grew up in the environs where The War of the Worlds is set. Now I live in Tasmania."

In its second year, the Hadley's Art Prize drew 640 entries, almost double last year's number.

It was created by one of the owners of the Hadley's Hotel, Don Neil, who personally paid for the prize and its establishment costs.

The Visit will be added to a growing permanent collection at the hotel.

Last year's inaugural winner was Peter Mungkuri, an Indigenous artist from South Australia.