This exhibition explores how the local landscape has been a source of inspiration for artists from the nineteenth century to the present.

Many artists, including Charles William Brown and Reginald Haggar, lived in and around Stoke-on-Trent, where they painted pictures of the extraordinary industrial landscape. Others, such as Michael Ayrton and Mark Wood, visited the Potteries, creating their own distinctive images of the area.

Some paintings are displayed with photographs to highlight similarities and differences. Photographers from William Blake to Michael Collins documented particular subjects, while painters like Jessie Tait and Julian Trevelyan developed a more personal response to the local environment.

Images of Stoke-on-Trent also feature on ceramics, ranging from plaques to commemoratives born out of the local Methodist movement.

Overall, the exhibition surveys how artists have pictured the Potteries, from a semi-rural idyll to an industrial metropolis and, more recently, a city undergoing a process of transformation.

All the works in the exhibition are from the museum’s collections.

Images from the collections can be purchased through Staffordshire Prints. Visit: www.staffordshireprints.org.uk