A UNIQUE exhibition showcasing three generations of artwork from one Cotswold family opens in Stroud.

Family Perspectives will show at the Lansdown Gallery from Tuesday, October 14.

This artistic journey begins with Robert Ball, a renowned painter and printmaker from Painswick, who became Principal of Stroud Art College, teaching life drawing, anatomy and painting. The works shown include paintings and etchings produced when he was a teenage art student and traces his artistic development through woodcuts produced for Frank Mansell’s Cotswold Ballads and paintings of family members, to whom he passed on his love of art. The journey continues with works by Robert’s daughter, Rosalind Smith, the wife of the late Robert Smith, the respected Stroud solicitor. She and her siblings were trained at their father’s knee and the exhibition includes a number of etchings and botanical paintings, inspired by Robert Ball’s own work.

Coming right up to date, the exhibition features new work by Rosalind Smith’s son, Benjamin Smith. Benjamin trained as a solicitor, temporarily taking over the Lansdown office of Robert Smith & Co following his father’s sudden death in 2012. Beginning his own artistic journey as a student at Marling School and inspired by his family forebears, Benjamin has spent several years studying the techniques of classical drawing and oil painting. Tracing his artistic lineage through his grandfather to the great academies of Europe, Benjamin draws his own inspiration from artists such as Velazquez, Van Dyck, Rubens, and Sargent. Works on display include renderings in charcoal from classical sculpture and still life paintings in oils.

Family Perspectives is a fascinating insight into the artistic vision of one family, stretching back almost a century. It will show at the Lansdown Gallery from October 14 to 25.