View of a spiral staircase
- Object:
drawing
- Place of origin:
Tenby, Wales (probable, made)
St. Mary's Tower, Birnam, Scotland (possible, made) - Date:
1882 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Beatrix Potter, born 1866 - died 1943 (artist)
- Materials and Techniques:
Sepia wash and pencil on card
- Credit Line:
Copyright Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd.
- Museum number:
BP.287
- 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 Original Peter Rabbit Books between 1901 and 1913. The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Frederick Warne, 1902) is her most famous and best-loved tale.
Before her marriage in 1913, Beatrix Potter would accompany her family to Scotland or to the Lake District for the summer months. She recorded her impressions of the places and people she visited in a journal written in code; her sketches of houses and gardens inspired some of the backgrounds in her book illustrations.
The staircase in this drawing has been thought to be that of St. Mary's Tower, Little Dunkeld, near Birnam, Perthshire. St. Mary's Tower was the Scottish seat of Henry J. B. Manners and its staircase is depicted in Sir John Everett Millais's 'The Grey Lady'. However, it is more likely that the staircase is in a church near Tenby; Beatrix Potter visited here in 1882.
