A mouse knitting
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.
As early as 1893 Beatrix Potter had illustrated a rhyme that appears in the 1917 Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes. Following her completion of the drawings for The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902, she began to think seriously about a book of rhymes, and worked on the project between 1902 and 1905, while also producing more of her well-known ‘little books’. Following the death of her editor and, by then, fiancé, Norman Warne, in 1905, the project was put aside and left untouched for many years, before being taken up again in June 1917; Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes was published in an abridged edition that October. This design is a variant of an illustration used in the book, and dates from around 1905. It illustrates the second verse of Potter’s own rhyme:
You know the old woman
who lived in a shoe?
And had so many children
She didn’t know what to do?
I think if she lived in
a little shoe-house-
That little old woman was
surely a mouse!
As early as 1893 Beatrix Potter had illustrated a rhyme that appears in the 1917 Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes. Following her completion of the drawings for The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902, she began to think seriously about a book of rhymes, and worked on the project between 1902 and 1905, while also producing more of her well-known ‘little books’. Following the death of her editor and, by then, fiancé, Norman Warne, in 1905, the project was put aside and left untouched for many years, before being taken up again in June 1917; Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes was published in an abridged edition that October. This design is a variant of an illustration used in the book, and dates from around 1905. It illustrates the second verse of Potter’s own rhyme:
You know the old woman
who lived in a shoe?
And had so many children
She didn’t know what to do?
I think if she lived in
a little shoe-house-
That little old woman was
surely a mouse!
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | A mouse knitting (published title) |
| Materials and techniques | watercolour, pen and ink and pencil on paper |
| Brief description | Watercolour and pen and ink drawing of a mouse knitting, a design for an illustration in Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes by Beatrix Potter, probably drawn 1902-1905 for the intended earlier book of rhymes (in the end it was not completed and published until 1917); Linder Bequest cat. no. LB.712. |
| Physical description | A watercolour and pen and ink illustration of a mouse wearing a dress, cap and pinnie sat in a chair knitting, her ball of blue wool trailing on the floor in front of her. There is a hearth to the left with a plate of food, a kettle and a coal shovel. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Style | |
| Production type | Unique |
| Credit line | Linder Bequest [plus object number; written on labels on the same line as the object number] |
| Object history | Drawn by Beatrix Potter, perhaps in around 1905, as a design for an illustration in Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes, which was finally completed and published in 1917. 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. As early as 1893 Beatrix Potter had illustrated a rhyme that appears in the 1917 Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes. Following her completion of the drawings for The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902, she began to think seriously about a book of rhymes, and worked on the project between 1902 and 1905, while also producing more of her well-known ‘little books’. Following the death of her editor and, by then, fiancé, Norman Warne, in 1905, the project was put aside and left untouched for many years, before being taken up again in June 1917; Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes was published in an abridged edition that October. This design is a variant of an illustration used in the book, and dates from around 1905. It illustrates the second verse of Potter’s own rhyme: You know the old woman who lived in a shoe? And had so many children She didn’t know what to do? I think if she lived in a little shoe-house- That little old woman was surely a mouse! |
| 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.73; no.712
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.73; no.712 |
| Other number | LB.712 - Linder Bequest catalogue no. |
| Collection | |
| Library number | BP.519(b) |
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| Record created | March 27, 2015 |
| Record URL |
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