The Fox and the Grapes
Watercolour
ca.1895 (drawn)
ca.1895 (drawn)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Drawing in watercolour and pen and ink over pencil of a fox with a chain around its neck. It sits on top of a hutch, looking intently into the foreground with its tongue hanging out. Two pigeons look down on him from a red-tiled roof. Grape-vine on weather-boarded wall behind him. Untidy woodpile in the back right and empty bowl with gnawed bones in front right.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | The Fox and the Grapes (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Watercolour and pen and ink over pencil on paper |
| Brief description | Drawing, The Fox and the Grapes, watercolour and pen and ink over pencil, by Beatrix Potter, Great Britain, ca.1895, Linder Collection object no. 5.1, catalogue no. LC.21.B.1 |
| Physical description | Drawing in watercolour and pen and ink over pencil of a fox with a chain around its neck. It sits on top of a hutch, looking intently into the foreground with its tongue hanging out. Two pigeons look down on him from a red-tiled roof. Grape-vine on weather-boarded wall behind him. Untidy woodpile in the back right and empty bowl with gnawed bones in front right. |
| Dimensions |
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| Production type | Unique |
| Marks and inscriptions | ' "That is Not a / fat pigeon" ' (Caption in ink in detached lettering.) |
| Gallery label | In Aesop’s fable of ‘The Fox and the Grapes’, the fox, unable to reach some grapes, pretends that they would have disagreed with him anyway. In her early depiction of the fox, Potter chose to show a more realistic temptation – a fat pigeon. Perhaps she was inspired by a Thomas Bewick illustration to the same story in his book of Aesop’s fables (1818), in which he depicted ducks.(August 2022) |
| Credit line | Given by the Linder Collection |
| Object history | Given by Leslie Linder (1904-1973) to the National Book League (now the Book Trust) in 1970 as part of a representative selection of Beatrix Potter's work. This selection, comprising 279 drawings and 38 early editions and now known as the Linder Collection, was formerly on long-term loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum between 1989 and 2019 form the charitable trust, The Linder Trust. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Literary reference | Aesop, The fox and the grapes |
| Bibliographic reference | Hobbs, Anne Stevenson (compiler). The Linder Collection of the works and drawings of Beatrix Potter: catalogue of works on paper. London: The Trustees of the Linder Collection, 1996 (1999 reprint).
p.45, cat. no. 5.1 |
| Other numbers |
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| Collection | |
| Library number | LC 21/B/1 |
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| Record created | July 30, 2013 |
| Record URL |
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