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.

Before her marriage in 1913, Beatrix Potter accompanied her family on extended summer holidays and she often took the opportunity to sketch the places she visited. This forest scene was made in September 1894, during a summer holiday spent at Lennel, near Coldstream. Potter recorded many details of this busy summer in her journal, referring to the collecting of fossils and fungi as well as drawing. She wrote in her journal on 10th October 1894 as the visit drew to a close:

"I was glad to sit on the twisted roots of the large sycamore looking down the river under the black shadowy leaves, very tired and very peaceful. The autumn colours were bright in the woods lower down. I never saw it look prettier. I was very sorry indeed to come away, with a feeling of not having half worked through the district, but I have done a good summer’s work. The funguses will come up again and the fossils will keep."