In the Genes?

Thomas Benjamin Kennington 1856-1916 by Eric Kennington RA 1888- 1960

Isn’t DNA a wonderful thing? For a long time my brother and I have whimsically wondered whether we are related to two artists –  the Victorian genre painter, Thomas Benjamin Kennington and his son, the well-known war artist Eric Kennington.

This photograph on the left below is my great-great-grandfather Robert Davis Kennington, and in the other photograph, pictured centre with her sisters is Georgina – my great-grandmother. I’ve written before about the influence of her son, my grandfather Stephen, and our shared love of drawing - my first ever picture book (Grandad) was based on our wonderful relationship.

Last year I uploaded my DNA to ‘Ancestry’ and amazingly discovered that we are indeed somehow related to these esteemed artists. The details of our family tree and how we link is not yet known, but maybe with a bit of detective work, we can discover exactly how in time.

A few weeks ago, we spotted a portrait coming up for auction which seemed too good to pass by - Thomas painted by his son Eric. Thinking there was probably no chance of buying it, I left a bid and hoped for the best.  Amazingly I was successful and now we have the portrait hanging on our wall…it feels like we have a little bit of them both all in one place.

Me and my Grandad in 1973