Interior of the potting-shed at Bedwell Lodge, Hertfordshire
- Object:
drawing
- Place of origin:
Bedwell Lodge (made)
- Date:
08/1891 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Potter, Beatrix, born 1866 - died 1943 (artist)
- Materials and Techniques:
Crayon on paper
- Credit Line:
Copyright Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd.
- Museum number:
BP.279
- Gallery location:
In Storage
Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) is one of the world's best-loved children's authors and illustrators. She wrote the majority of the twenty-three Original Peter Rabbit Books between 1901 and 1913. The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Frederick Warne, 1902) is her most famous and best-loved tale.
As well as an accomplished story-teller, Beatrix Potter was also a keen nature artist. Her menagerie of pets included rabbits, frogs, squirrels, mice and hedgehogs. When illustrating her tales she would always sketch her fictional characters from live models and often depicted real places in the backgrounds.
During the summer of 1891, the Potter family visited Bedwell Lodge, Hertfordshire. Beatrix Potter produced several sketches of the potting-shed which later was to inspire her illustration of Mr. McGregor's tool-shed in The Tale of Peter Rabbit. In the story, Peter Rabbit runs into the tool-shed to escape from Mr. McGregor and hides inside a watering-can.
