Beatrix Potter: Beyond Peter Rabbit
July 28, 2016
English author Beatrix Potter stands outside her Lake District house near Ambleside in northwestern England.
Credit: © Popperfoto/Getty Images
The beloved English author and illustrator Beatrix Potter was born 150 years ago today in 1866. Potter became known for her charming children’s stories about small animals. Her books combine stories of adventure and humor with delicate water colors that capture the action and mood of the text. Potter’s first and most famous story is The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902), one of the first modern picture books. It has been translated into 36 languages and is one of the best-selling books of all time.
Potter wrote and illustrated about 25 books. In addition to Peter Rabbit, her characters include Squirrel Nutkin, Benjamin Bunny, Tom Kitten, Jemima Puddle-Duck, the Flopsy Bunnies, and Pigling Bland. Potter based many of her illustrations on the animals and rural landscapes of the Lake District of northwestern England.
However, the beautiful water colors for which Potter became famous were not her idea for the first book. Her original manuscript for The Tale of Peter Rabbit featured black-and-white woodcut images. Publishers rejected the book, preferring color illustrations, which had become popular in children’s books. Potter resisted, saying “I did not color the whole book for two reasons: the great expense of good color printing; and also the rather uninteresting color of a good many of the subjects which are most of them rabbit-brown and green.” In 1901, she published a private edition of the book that she distributed to family and friends. Potter soon realized her mistake, however, and provided color illustrations for a new edition with a publisher. The first 8,000 copies of the color edition sold out in advance of its publication in October 1902.
An astute businesswoman, Potter licensed her characters early on, and it was she, rather than her publishers, who pushed forward these ideas. In 1903, she designed, created, and registered a patent for a Peter Rabbit doll, making Peter Rabbit the world’s first licensed literary character. Potter also explored other merchandising ideas, including tea sets and bedroom slippers, and was closely involved in product development. She also invented a Peter Rabbit board game for two players in 1904.
Helen Beatrix Potter was born on July 28, 1866, in London to wealthy parents. She began drawing plants and animals as a child. Although Potter never went to school, her parents employed an art teacher and a governess. The Tale of Peter Rabbit was written for the five-year-old son of Potter’s governess. Two of Potter’s earliest artist models were her pet rabbits. Her first rabbit was Benjamin Bouncer, who enjoyed snacking on buttered toast and went on holiday with the Potter family in Scotland, where he was walked on a leash. Potter’s second rabbit, Peter Piper, performed tricks and accompanied Potter everywhere she went. Potter spent many hours sketching animals and plants, revealing an early fascination for the natural world that would continue throughout her life.
Although Potter became famous for her children’s stories, she was also a botanist and naturalist, as well as an adept scientific illustrator. She was invited to study at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, where she investigated the cultivation and growth of fungi and produced hundreds of detailed botanical drawings and water colors. By 1896, she had developed her own theory of how fungi spores reproduced and wrote a paper, On the Germination of the Spores of Agaricineae. Although the paper was never published, scientists still recognize Potter’s contribution to mycological (the branch of botany that deals with fungi) research today. Potter died on Dec. 22, 1943.
Further evidence of Potter’s diverse talents was recently discovered tucked away in some books at Melford Hall, a Sussex country house that Potter regularly visited. The Tudor home was the residence of Potter’s cousin. Four previously unknown drawings of scenes from Melford Hall detail Potter’s understanding of and appreciation for architecture and interior design. The drawings are now on display at Melford Hall as part of an exhibition celebrating Potter’s links to the house.
Beatrix Potter’s drawing of the chamber room at Melford Hall
Credit: © Beatrix Potter/National Trust
