The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse
Watercolour
ca.1905 (drawn)
ca.1905 (drawn)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Drawing in watercolour and pen and ink over pencil. A field vole sits at the entrance to his nest, gesticulating with his fore-paws, some ears of wheat beside him. A house mouse in a long grey-blue greatcoat approaches him from the right foreground, carrying a Gladstone bag in his left fore-paw and a walking stick and umbrella ends are visible wrapped up in a green and bright orange travelling rug in his right fore-paw. There is an asymmetrical partial border around the scene in subdued greens and browns containing mosses, grasses and ivy-leaved toadflax.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Parts | This object consists of 2 parts.
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| Title | The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Watercolour and pen and ink over pencil on paper |
| Brief description | Drawing, The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse, watercolour and pen and ink over pencil, by Beatrix Potter, Great Britain, ca.1905, Linder Collection object no. LC.21.B.2, catalogue no. 5.3 |
| Physical description | Drawing in watercolour and pen and ink over pencil. A field vole sits at the entrance to his nest, gesticulating with his fore-paws, some ears of wheat beside him. A house mouse in a long grey-blue greatcoat approaches him from the right foreground, carrying a Gladstone bag in his left fore-paw and a walking stick and umbrella ends are visible wrapped up in a green and bright orange travelling rug in his right fore-paw. There is an asymmetrical partial border around the scene in subdued greens and browns containing mosses, grasses and ivy-leaved toadflax. |
| Dimensions |
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| Production type | Unique |
| Marks and inscriptions | 'The Country Mouse / and / the Town Mouse.' (Inscribed in ink, bottom left, in decorative lettering.) |
| Gallery label | In a 1905 drawing titled ‘The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse’, Potter depicted the visiting town mouse clothed and carrying an umbrella and walking stick wrapped inside a rug. When she planned a new storybook, Potter adapted the image for the book’s cover. At first, she intended the new book’s title to be The Tale of Timmie Willie or A Tale of a Country Mouse, but when it changed to The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse, she had to alter the beginning by adding: ‘Johnny Town-Mouse was born in a cupboard.’ (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 town mouse and the country mouse |
| Associated object | LC.21/B/3 (Pair) |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Other numbers |
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| Collection | |
| Library number | LC 21/B/2 |
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| Record created | July 30, 2013 |
| Record URL |
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