Unfinished sketch of Mrs Tiggy-winkle
Watercolour
ca. 1905 (made)
ca. 1905 (made)
| Artist/Maker |
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.
This drawing is a preparatory sketch for a variant of the cover illustration of The Tale of Miss Tiggy-winkle, the final version of which sees the hedgehog in a very similar pose. In a letter to her editor, Norman Warne, in November 1904, Potter told of her efforts to draw her pet hedgehog: ‘Mrs Tiggy as a model is so comical; as long as she can go to sleep on my knee she is delighted, but if she is propped up on end for half an hour she begins to yawn pathetically, and then she does bite! Never the less she is a dear person… I think the book will go all right once started.’ The study is undated but was likely made around 1905, when The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-winkle was first published.
This drawing is a preparatory sketch for a variant of the cover illustration of The Tale of Miss Tiggy-winkle, the final version of which sees the hedgehog in a very similar pose. In a letter to her editor, Norman Warne, in November 1904, Potter told of her efforts to draw her pet hedgehog: ‘Mrs Tiggy as a model is so comical; as long as she can go to sleep on my knee she is delighted, but if she is propped up on end for half an hour she begins to yawn pathetically, and then she does bite! Never the less she is a dear person… I think the book will go all right once started.’ The study is undated but was likely made around 1905, when The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-winkle was first published.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Unfinished sketch of Mrs Tiggy-winkle (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | pencil, pen and ink and watercolour on card |
| Brief description | Unfinished watercolour and pen and ink over pencil drawing of a clothed hedgehog (Mrs Tiggy-Winkle), a variant for the cover illustration of The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, drawn by Beatrix Potter, ca. 1905; Linder Bequest cat. no. LB.869 |
| Physical description | Unfinished sketch of Mrs Tiggy-winkle; a hedgehog wearing a cap, clothing and apron with paws clasped. The drawing has been made in pencil, and has been worked up with pen and ink and watercolour in the upper and right, with the lower and central areas left incomplete. In terms of the colouring, Mrs Tiggy-winkle's sleeves are shown in patterned pink, the brown fur of her face is shown, and her skirt is brown with blue stripes. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Style | |
| Production type | Unique |
| Gallery label | Potter wrote: ‘I have thought the whole countryside belonged to the fairies…There are not many hedgehogs, which are fairy beasts…’ Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, of all the Tales characters, possesses fairy qualities. The hedgehog laundress lives alone behind a door in the hillside and her identity confuses Lucie until the end of the story, when she reveals her true form.(November 2019) |
| Credit line | Linder Bequest [plus object number; written on labels on the same line as the object number] |
| Object history | Drawn by Beatrix Potter c.1905, prior to the publication of 'The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-winkle'. Acquired by the V&A from Leslie Linder (1904-1973) in 1973 as part of the Linder Bequest, a collection of ca. 2150 watercolours, drawings, literary manuscripts, correspondence, books, photographs, and other memorabilia associated with Beatrix Potter and her family. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | 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. This drawing is a preparatory sketch for a variant of the cover illustration of The Tale of Miss Tiggy-winkle, the final version of which sees the hedgehog in a very similar pose. In a letter to her editor, Norman Warne, in November 1904, Potter told of her efforts to draw her pet hedgehog: ‘Mrs Tiggy as a model is so comical; as long as she can go to sleep on my knee she is delighted, but if she is propped up on end for half an hour she begins to yawn pathetically, and then she does bite! Never the less she is a dear person… I think the book will go all right once started.’ The study is undated but was likely made around 1905, when The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-winkle was first published. |
| Bibliographic reference | Hobbs, Anne Stevenson, and Joyce Irene Whalley, eds. Beatrix Potter: the V & A collection : the Leslie Linder bequest of Beatrix Potter material : watercolours, drawings, manuscripts, books, photographs and memorabilia. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1985.
p.94; no.869
Hobbs, Anne Stevenson, and Joyce Irene Whalley, eds. Beatrix Potter: the V & A collection: the Leslie Linder bequest of Beatrix Potter material: watercolours, drawings, manuscripts, books, photographs and memorabilia. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1985. p.94; no.869 |
| Other number | LB.869 - Linder Bequest catalogue no. |
| Collection | |
| Library number | BP.499 |
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| Record created | March 25, 2015 |
| Record URL |
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