Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature

Andrew Finlay Mackenzie  
English, 1846–1940 
Studio portrait of Beatrix Potter, ca. 1892 
Albumen print on gilt-edged, lithographed card 
V&A: AAD/2006/4/472, Given by Joan Duke, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

Beatrix Potter, born July 28, 1866, in Kensington, London is best known for her storybooks featuring the adventures of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck, and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, to name a few. 

For the first forty-seven years of her life, Beatrix lived mostly in the same town house in Kensington. She came from a well-connected family—her ancestors from Lancashire had gained wealth and influence through calico printing and trade in luxury goods. By Beatrix’s time, the family had artistic and scientific connections near their London home, which gave her the opportunity and drive to expand her creative pursuits and scientific interests.  

Watercolor and pencil on paper
V&A: Linder Bequest BP.495, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

Watercolor and pencil on paper, stitched
V&A: Linder Bequest BP.741, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

Beatrix’s “irresistible desire to copy” began early in life. She had this sketchbook when she was nine and filled it with copies of illustrations and landscapes and flowers drawn from life. The pages shown here include her first known imaginative illustration, featuring hares who ice skate or battle with umbrellas in the windy weather.

Watercolor and pen and ink on paper
V&A: LC 4/A/1, Given by the Linder Collection, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

While staying with her relatives, the Huttons, in Gloucestershire, Beatrix kindled a lasting friendship with Caroline, a cousin who shared a similar passion for nature. They followed badger tracks and “poked around delightfully” for snails in the woods behind the garden of the Huttons’ home, Harescombe Grange, shown here.

Watercolor and pencil on paper
V&A: LC 27/B/3, Given by the Linder Collection, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

Gwaynynog was the North Wales home of the Burtons—Beatrix’s aunt, uncle, and cousin. Beatrix resented having to sneak her pets in under her aunt’s nose, but both the house and garden inspired her tastes. The garden was “not tidy, [but] the prettiest kind of garden, where bright old-fashioned flowers grow amongst currant bushes.” It later became the setting for The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies.

Watercolor, pen and ink, and pencil on paper, mounted on card
V&A: Linder Bequest BP.460, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

Beatrix believed that endpapers should be simple to “rest the eye” between the cover and the story, but in 1903, Frederick Warne & Co. decided that they wanted pictorial ones. Beatrix’s designs doubled as advertisement and branding—they changed from book to book as new stories and characters appeared. The second version shown here introduced the tailor mice and Squirrel Nutkin.

Watercolor and pencil on paper
V&A: Linder Bequest BP.1057, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

Monk Coniston is a villa estate of over five thousand acres, made up of lakeshore parkland, farm and fell, and the designed landscape, Tarn Hows. Beatrix’s great-grandfather, Abraham Crompton, once owned Tilberthwaite Farm on the estate. Anxious that the estate would be lost to developers, Beatrix bought it in 1930, selling half to the National Trust and managing the rest until she bequeathed it to the charity.