Beatrix Potter (Kunst)
Beatrix Potter's first children’s book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, was published in 1902. She had experienced difficulty finding a publisher, having sent the manuscript to six publishers, and receiving six rejections. However, the book was eventually accepted by the London firm of Frederick Warne & Co. It was an instant success and Beatrix went on to produce a total of twenty-three “little Tales”, all published by Warne.
Victorian childhood
Beatrix Potter was born on 28th July 1866 at No 2, Bolton Gardens, Kensington, in London. The Potters were a typical Victorian family, living in a large house with servants. Beatrix was looked after by a nanny, spending most of her time in the big nursery at the top of the house and often only seeing her parents at bedtime. When she was old enough to start lessons, the nursery was converted to a schoolroom and Beatrix was taught on her own by a governess. In those days, a girl of her social class often did not go to school.
Her younger brother Bertram was born when she was six years old. In spite of the difference in their ages, they became good friends as they grew up. They both enjoyed painting and drawing and they loved animals. The family always had a dog and the children also kept an assortment of different creatures as pets in the schoolroom, including rabbits, mice, frogs, lizards, snakes, snails and a bat.
Beatrix’s parents didn’t give her many opportunities to mix with other children but they were tolerant of the animals in the schoolroom. They also encouraged her interest in art, providing her with special art tutors and taking her to see exhibitions at galleries.
However, the most exciting time of the year for Beatrix was the summer. Every year her father rented a large house in Scotland for three months. The whole family travelled north by train with the dog, the servants and the carriage horses. Beatrix’s smaller creatures, such as a rabbit or mice, travelled with her in boxes. The house they visited most regularly was Dalguise, on the river Tay in Perthshire. Here the children had the freedom to explore the countryside and Beatrix learnt to observe plants and insects with an artist’s eye for detail.
The summer that Beatrix was sixteen Dalguise House was not available and so the family rented a property in the English Lake District instead. This was Beatrix’s first visit to the Lakes and she fell completely in love with the beauty of the countryside. It was an attraction that was to last for the rest of her life.
Secret diary
When Beatrix was fifteen, she began to keep a journal written in a secret code of her own invention. Even Beatrix herself, when she read back over it in later life, found it difficult to understand.
It was not until fifteen years after her death that the code was cracked. To the outside world Beatrix appeared a shy and reserved person but in her diary she was able to express herself openly, and she showed herself to be a strong critic of the artists, writers and politicians of the day.
Loves and losses
Norman Warne was the youngest of the three brothers who ran the publishing firm of Frederick Warne & Co., and he was assigned to be Beatrix Potter’s editor for The Tale of Peter Rabbit. He and Beatrix got on well from the first. Beatrix frequently made the journey by carriage to the Warne offices in Bedford Square to discuss the book’s production with Norman. It was not considered appropriate for a lady to visit business premises alone so Beatrix always had to take a female friend as a chaperone to these meetings.
By the time Beatrix was preparing The Tale of Two Bad Mice in 1904, Norman was fully involved in the creative process, buying doll’s house furniture as props for Beatrix to draw and inviting her to his brother’s house in Surbiton to sketch a real doll’s house he had made. Beatrix’s mother, however, refused to let her go. In her view, the Warne family were “in trade” and therefore not suitable friends for her daughter. Beatrix cared nothing for this. A romance was developing between her editor and herself, even though they were never able to spend any time alone together. On 25th July 1905 Norman sent Beatrix a letter proposing marriage. Beatrix’s parents were horrified and forbade the match. Eventually a temporary compromise was reached, whereby Beatrix was allowed to wear Norman’s ring but the engagement would not yet be made public. Sadly the issue was never resolved. Norman suddenly became very ill with a form of leukaemia and he died only a month after his proposal.
The tragedy was devastating for Beatrix but she did her best to overcome her grief by devoting herself to her work. She also spent as much time as she could in the Lake District where she was using the income from her books to buy farmland. The solicitor who helped with her property dealings was a local man, William Heelis, and he was to become the second love of her life. Their relationship developed gradually as they worked together and shared interests in the countryside and conservation. This time Beatrix ignored her parents’ opposition and she and William were married in October 1913. They remained happily together in the Lake District until Beatrix’s death in 1944.
Life in the Lake District
Hill Top Farm
As a young woman Beatrix had spent many holidays in the Lake District and the place she liked best was a village called Sawrey near Windermere. In 1905 she decided to use some of the income from her books and a legacy from her aunt to buy a traditional Lakeland farm in Sawrey called Hill Top. She arranged for an extension to be built on the house so that the farm manager, John Cannon, could continue to live there with his family and run the farm, with its pigs, cows, sheep, ducks and hens.
Although Beatrix was still living at home in London with her parents she spent as much time as she could visiting her new home. She organized renovations to the farmhouse and created a beautiful English cottage garden. Furthermore she used Hill Top as background material for the illustrations in her books.
In The Tale of Tom Kitten (1907) Tom and his family live in a house like Hill Top and the illustrations show the porch, glimpses of the interior and the wonderful flowery garden.
The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck (1908) is set in the farmyard. John Cannon’s wife and children appear in two of the illustrations, and both the simple-minded duck, Jemima, and Kep the kindly collie are based on real inhabitants of Hill Top Farm.
The Tale of Samuel Whiskers (1908) again features Tom Kitten and his family and has many scenes showing the rooms of the house looking exactly as they do today. The story was inspired by a real infestation of rats at Hill Top.
The Tale of Ginger and Pickles (1909) is set in the Sawrey village shop. The elderly owner of the shop appeared in the story at his own request, as a dormouse. By this time Beatrix was very much part of the local community. Her neighbours all enjoyed seeing representations of their homes and cats in a book.
The Tale of Pigling Bland (1913) features the Hill Top farm pigs, including the little black pig, Pig-wig, whom Beatrix kept as a pet because she was rejected by the farm manager as being too small. The story has a romantic ending with Pigling Bland and Pig-wig running away together. It was published in the year of Beatrix Potter’s marriage to William Heelis, although Beatrix always denied that the charming picture of the two pigs arm in arm represented her and William.
William Heelis
Managing Hill Top Farm taught Beatrix much about farming. With the money earned from the Peter Rabbit books, she began to extend her property in the Lake District. William Heelis was the local solicitor who advised her on her land dealings. He shared her love of the Lake District. In 1912, William Heelis proposed marriage to Beatrix and she accepted. William and Beatrix were married in October 1913 in London, when Beatrix was 47. They made their home at Castle Cottage, Sawrey.
Farming and The Fairy Caravan
During her lifetime Beatrix bought fifteen farms, and took a very active part in caring for them. Dressed in clogs, shawl and an old tweed skirt, she helped with the hay-making, waded through mud to unblock drains and searched the fells for lost sheep. She said she was at her happiest when she was with her farm animals.
With her shepherd, Tom Storey, she bred Herdwick sheep, winning major prizes at local shows. In 1943 she became the first woman to be elected President of the Herdwick Sheep Breeders’ Association, a sign of the high regard in which she was held by the local farming community.
She liked to keep secret her identity as Beatrix Potter, author of the Peter Rabbit books. However, she always welcomed American fans who made the journey to Hill Top, because she felt American readers had a more sympathetic understanding of her work than British ones. In 1929, she wrote her longest story, The Fairy Caravan, which featured her own Herdwick sheep. The book was dedicated to an American boy, Henry P. Coolidge, and she arranged for it to be published only in America by the firm of David McKay.
Conservation and the National Trust
Beatrix’s interest in conservation began on her first visit to the Lake District when she was sixteen. The local vicar was a charismatic young man called Hardwicke Rawnsley whose views on the need to care for the environment made a strong impression on Beatrix. Later Rawnsley was one of the three founders of the National Trust, dedicated to preserving places of historic interest and natural beauty.
Beatrix supported the National Trust all her life. She followed the Trust’s principles in managing her land, maintaining traditional buildings and farming methods. She understood the need to preserve rural culture as well as beautiful scenery. On her farms she reintroduced Herdwick sheep, a threatened native breed particularly suited to the Lake District fells.
When Beatrix died in 1943, she left fifteen farms and over 4,000 acres of land to the National Trust. In accordance with her wishes, Hill Top Farm was kept exactly as it had been when she lived in it and today receives thousands of visitors a year.
Miss Potter Film
Centred around the relationship between Beatrix Potter and Norman Warne, which developed while they worked together on the publication of the first few Peter Rabbit books and ended tragically in his early death, this Hollywood film stars Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor.
Directed by Chris Noonan (Babe), it took an incredible fourteen years to get from script to screen. It tells the fascinating tale of an incredible woman who created one of the world’s most enduring characters and became an author and artist of independent means in Victorian England.
Visit the National Trust's website to go behind the scenes and visit the stunning Lake District film locations.
Beatrix Potter's Art
As a child, Beatrix Potter was encouraged to draw. She spent many hours making intricate childhood sketches of animals and plants, revealing an early fascination for the natural world which would continue throughout her life.
She made realistic studies of animals and birds but her imaginative art features rabbits wearing bibs, and mice whose paws are busy with spinning, knitting and sewing.
On family holidays outside London, she enjoyed sketching landscapes.
Although she never went to school, Beatrix was an intelligent and industrious student. She left a large body of remarkable scientific illustrations of fossils, archaeological finds, mosses and lichens, wild flowers, microscope drawings and, most importantly, fungi, many of which she donated to the Armitt Trust.
http://www.peterrabbit.com
Victorian childhood
Beatrix Potter was born on 28th July 1866 at No 2, Bolton Gardens, Kensington, in London. The Potters were a typical Victorian family, living in a large house with servants. Beatrix was looked after by a nanny, spending most of her time in the big nursery at the top of the house and often only seeing her parents at bedtime. When she was old enough to start lessons, the nursery was converted to a schoolroom and Beatrix was taught on her own by a governess. In those days, a girl of her social class often did not go to school.
Her younger brother Bertram was born when she was six years old. In spite of the difference in their ages, they became good friends as they grew up. They both enjoyed painting and drawing and they loved animals. The family always had a dog and the children also kept an assortment of different creatures as pets in the schoolroom, including rabbits, mice, frogs, lizards, snakes, snails and a bat.
Beatrix’s parents didn’t give her many opportunities to mix with other children but they were tolerant of the animals in the schoolroom. They also encouraged her interest in art, providing her with special art tutors and taking her to see exhibitions at galleries.
However, the most exciting time of the year for Beatrix was the summer. Every year her father rented a large house in Scotland for three months. The whole family travelled north by train with the dog, the servants and the carriage horses. Beatrix’s smaller creatures, such as a rabbit or mice, travelled with her in boxes. The house they visited most regularly was Dalguise, on the river Tay in Perthshire. Here the children had the freedom to explore the countryside and Beatrix learnt to observe plants and insects with an artist’s eye for detail.
The summer that Beatrix was sixteen Dalguise House was not available and so the family rented a property in the English Lake District instead. This was Beatrix’s first visit to the Lakes and she fell completely in love with the beauty of the countryside. It was an attraction that was to last for the rest of her life.
Secret diary
When Beatrix was fifteen, she began to keep a journal written in a secret code of her own invention. Even Beatrix herself, when she read back over it in later life, found it difficult to understand.
It was not until fifteen years after her death that the code was cracked. To the outside world Beatrix appeared a shy and reserved person but in her diary she was able to express herself openly, and she showed herself to be a strong critic of the artists, writers and politicians of the day.
Loves and losses
Norman Warne was the youngest of the three brothers who ran the publishing firm of Frederick Warne & Co., and he was assigned to be Beatrix Potter’s editor for The Tale of Peter Rabbit. He and Beatrix got on well from the first. Beatrix frequently made the journey by carriage to the Warne offices in Bedford Square to discuss the book’s production with Norman. It was not considered appropriate for a lady to visit business premises alone so Beatrix always had to take a female friend as a chaperone to these meetings.
By the time Beatrix was preparing The Tale of Two Bad Mice in 1904, Norman was fully involved in the creative process, buying doll’s house furniture as props for Beatrix to draw and inviting her to his brother’s house in Surbiton to sketch a real doll’s house he had made. Beatrix’s mother, however, refused to let her go. In her view, the Warne family were “in trade” and therefore not suitable friends for her daughter. Beatrix cared nothing for this. A romance was developing between her editor and herself, even though they were never able to spend any time alone together. On 25th July 1905 Norman sent Beatrix a letter proposing marriage. Beatrix’s parents were horrified and forbade the match. Eventually a temporary compromise was reached, whereby Beatrix was allowed to wear Norman’s ring but the engagement would not yet be made public. Sadly the issue was never resolved. Norman suddenly became very ill with a form of leukaemia and he died only a month after his proposal.
The tragedy was devastating for Beatrix but she did her best to overcome her grief by devoting herself to her work. She also spent as much time as she could in the Lake District where she was using the income from her books to buy farmland. The solicitor who helped with her property dealings was a local man, William Heelis, and he was to become the second love of her life. Their relationship developed gradually as they worked together and shared interests in the countryside and conservation. This time Beatrix ignored her parents’ opposition and she and William were married in October 1913. They remained happily together in the Lake District until Beatrix’s death in 1944.
Life in the Lake District
Hill Top Farm
As a young woman Beatrix had spent many holidays in the Lake District and the place she liked best was a village called Sawrey near Windermere. In 1905 she decided to use some of the income from her books and a legacy from her aunt to buy a traditional Lakeland farm in Sawrey called Hill Top. She arranged for an extension to be built on the house so that the farm manager, John Cannon, could continue to live there with his family and run the farm, with its pigs, cows, sheep, ducks and hens.
Although Beatrix was still living at home in London with her parents she spent as much time as she could visiting her new home. She organized renovations to the farmhouse and created a beautiful English cottage garden. Furthermore she used Hill Top as background material for the illustrations in her books.
In The Tale of Tom Kitten (1907) Tom and his family live in a house like Hill Top and the illustrations show the porch, glimpses of the interior and the wonderful flowery garden.
The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck (1908) is set in the farmyard. John Cannon’s wife and children appear in two of the illustrations, and both the simple-minded duck, Jemima, and Kep the kindly collie are based on real inhabitants of Hill Top Farm.
The Tale of Samuel Whiskers (1908) again features Tom Kitten and his family and has many scenes showing the rooms of the house looking exactly as they do today. The story was inspired by a real infestation of rats at Hill Top.
The Tale of Ginger and Pickles (1909) is set in the Sawrey village shop. The elderly owner of the shop appeared in the story at his own request, as a dormouse. By this time Beatrix was very much part of the local community. Her neighbours all enjoyed seeing representations of their homes and cats in a book.
The Tale of Pigling Bland (1913) features the Hill Top farm pigs, including the little black pig, Pig-wig, whom Beatrix kept as a pet because she was rejected by the farm manager as being too small. The story has a romantic ending with Pigling Bland and Pig-wig running away together. It was published in the year of Beatrix Potter’s marriage to William Heelis, although Beatrix always denied that the charming picture of the two pigs arm in arm represented her and William.
William Heelis
Managing Hill Top Farm taught Beatrix much about farming. With the money earned from the Peter Rabbit books, she began to extend her property in the Lake District. William Heelis was the local solicitor who advised her on her land dealings. He shared her love of the Lake District. In 1912, William Heelis proposed marriage to Beatrix and she accepted. William and Beatrix were married in October 1913 in London, when Beatrix was 47. They made their home at Castle Cottage, Sawrey.
Farming and The Fairy Caravan
During her lifetime Beatrix bought fifteen farms, and took a very active part in caring for them. Dressed in clogs, shawl and an old tweed skirt, she helped with the hay-making, waded through mud to unblock drains and searched the fells for lost sheep. She said she was at her happiest when she was with her farm animals.
With her shepherd, Tom Storey, she bred Herdwick sheep, winning major prizes at local shows. In 1943 she became the first woman to be elected President of the Herdwick Sheep Breeders’ Association, a sign of the high regard in which she was held by the local farming community.
She liked to keep secret her identity as Beatrix Potter, author of the Peter Rabbit books. However, she always welcomed American fans who made the journey to Hill Top, because she felt American readers had a more sympathetic understanding of her work than British ones. In 1929, she wrote her longest story, The Fairy Caravan, which featured her own Herdwick sheep. The book was dedicated to an American boy, Henry P. Coolidge, and she arranged for it to be published only in America by the firm of David McKay.
Conservation and the National Trust
Beatrix’s interest in conservation began on her first visit to the Lake District when she was sixteen. The local vicar was a charismatic young man called Hardwicke Rawnsley whose views on the need to care for the environment made a strong impression on Beatrix. Later Rawnsley was one of the three founders of the National Trust, dedicated to preserving places of historic interest and natural beauty.
Beatrix supported the National Trust all her life. She followed the Trust’s principles in managing her land, maintaining traditional buildings and farming methods. She understood the need to preserve rural culture as well as beautiful scenery. On her farms she reintroduced Herdwick sheep, a threatened native breed particularly suited to the Lake District fells.
When Beatrix died in 1943, she left fifteen farms and over 4,000 acres of land to the National Trust. In accordance with her wishes, Hill Top Farm was kept exactly as it had been when she lived in it and today receives thousands of visitors a year.
Miss Potter Film
Centred around the relationship between Beatrix Potter and Norman Warne, which developed while they worked together on the publication of the first few Peter Rabbit books and ended tragically in his early death, this Hollywood film stars Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor.
Directed by Chris Noonan (Babe), it took an incredible fourteen years to get from script to screen. It tells the fascinating tale of an incredible woman who created one of the world’s most enduring characters and became an author and artist of independent means in Victorian England.
Visit the National Trust's website to go behind the scenes and visit the stunning Lake District film locations.
Beatrix Potter's Art
As a child, Beatrix Potter was encouraged to draw. She spent many hours making intricate childhood sketches of animals and plants, revealing an early fascination for the natural world which would continue throughout her life.
She made realistic studies of animals and birds but her imaginative art features rabbits wearing bibs, and mice whose paws are busy with spinning, knitting and sewing.
On family holidays outside London, she enjoyed sketching landscapes.
Although she never went to school, Beatrix was an intelligent and industrious student. She left a large body of remarkable scientific illustrations of fossils, archaeological finds, mosses and lichens, wild flowers, microscope drawings and, most importantly, fungi, many of which she donated to the Armitt Trust.
http://www.peterrabbit.com
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