was inspired

It is presumably intended to mean that someone or something inspired him to feel that way. However, for me the sentence does not work properly.

GPYHowever, for me the sentence does not work properly.

Yes, I too would like to see more and carefully typed context, john.

The whole context:

This painting, by William Frederick Yeames, shows an imaginary scene from a Royalist household during the English Civil War. Parliamentarian soldiers have taken over the house and are questioning the little boy about the location of his Royalist father. The young boy in the painting was based on Yeames was inspired to paint the picture after recognising that childhood h

john liao the painting was based on Yeames was inspired

You are still making typing mistakes, which makes it difficult for us to assess your problems, john. Is that your error or one in the original text?

Sorry, correct as following

This painting, by William Frederick Yeames, shows an imaginary scene from a Royalist household during the English Civil War. Parliamentarian soldiers have taken over the house and are questioning the little boy about the location of his Royalist father. The young boy in the painting was based on Yeames' five-year-old nephew, James. Yeames was inspired to

john liao Yeames was inspired to paint the picture after recognising that childhood honesty and inoocence could have disastrous consequences.

Your original question, after all that, is easy to answer. 'Inspire' is often passive, since it is the thing that inspires the artist and it is the artist that is inspired by the thing—and that is precisely what

john liaoYeames was inspired to paint the picture after recognising that childhood honesty and innocence could have disastrous consequences.

OK, but this is completely different to your original sentence!