Rupert Potter (1832-1914), father of the children's writer and illustrator Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), took up photography in the 1860s when it was still a relatively new art form. An enthusiastic and skilled amateur, he was elected to the Photographic Society of London in 1869 and later contributed to photographic exhibitions. Rupert assisted the artist Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896), a close friend, by photographing backgrounds for paintings and sitters for portraits. His favourite subject, however, was Beatrix herself and his prolific legacy of several hundred photographs forms a broad pictorial account of her life from infancy to marriage.

This photograph shows the artist Sir John Everett Millais in his studio in July 1886. Beatrix Potter recounted her first visit to the painter's studio in her journal, on the 11th of November, 1883: ‘Went with papa and mamma to Mr. Millais’. First time I ever was in the house oddly enough. Hadn’t the least idea I was going, which was perhaps as well, or I should have been more nervous. After thinking in a sleepy way about the chance of going, its coming true seems like a dream. He was very kind indeed.’