Jackdaw Sweep
Watercolour
30 July 1892 (made)
30 July 1892 (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 design of a ‘Jackdaw Sweep’ has been linked to a passage in Beatrix Potter’s journal from Saturday 30 July 1892, when Potter was staying at Birnam in Perthshire: ‘I was busy in the morning finishing a drawing for Nister & Co. for which, by the way, they have not paid.’ Ernest Nister & Co. published a number of Potter’s early imaginary drawings in the 1890s, including her series ‘A frog he would a-fishing go’, for which there are numerous drawings in the Linder Bequest.
Potter made many closely observed studies of animals from nature, which informed her imaginary illustrations. She particularly admired the bird illustrations of natural history illustrators Thomas Bewick and Jemima Blackburn: she received a copy of the latter’s Birds Drawn from Nature for her tenth birthday and later met Mrs Blackburn.
This design of a ‘Jackdaw Sweep’ has been linked to a passage in Beatrix Potter’s journal from Saturday 30 July 1892, when Potter was staying at Birnam in Perthshire: ‘I was busy in the morning finishing a drawing for Nister & Co. for which, by the way, they have not paid.’ Ernest Nister & Co. published a number of Potter’s early imaginary drawings in the 1890s, including her series ‘A frog he would a-fishing go’, for which there are numerous drawings in the Linder Bequest.
Potter made many closely observed studies of animals from nature, which informed her imaginary illustrations. She particularly admired the bird illustrations of natural history illustrators Thomas Bewick and Jemima Blackburn: she received a copy of the latter’s Birds Drawn from Nature for her tenth birthday and later met Mrs Blackburn.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Jackdaw Sweep |
| Materials and techniques | watercolour, white gouache and pencil on paper |
| Brief description | Drawing of a jackdaw carrying a set of brooms by Beatrix Potter, believed to have been made for Ernest Nister & Co. in 1892; Linder Bequest cat. no. LB.1007. |
| Physical description | Drawing in vignette format of an upright jackdaw seen in profile, with sweeps under its wing. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Style | |
| Production type | Unique |
| Marks and inscriptions | 'drawn for Nister & co' (Inscribed in pencil, lower left.) |
| Credit line | Linder Bequest [plus object number; written on labels on the same line as the object number] |
| Object history | Drawn by Beatrix Potter, very probably at Birnam on Saturday 30 July 1892. 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 design of a ‘Jackdaw Sweep’ has been linked to a passage in Beatrix Potter’s journal from Saturday 30 July 1892, when Potter was staying at Birnam in Perthshire: ‘I was busy in the morning finishing a drawing for Nister & Co. for which, by the way, they have not paid.’ Ernest Nister & Co. published a number of Potter’s early imaginary drawings in the 1890s, including her series ‘A frog he would a-fishing go’, for which there are numerous drawings in the Linder Bequest. Potter made many closely observed studies of animals from nature, which informed her imaginary illustrations. She particularly admired the bird illustrations of natural history illustrators Thomas Bewick and Jemima Blackburn: she received a copy of the latter’s Birds Drawn from Nature for her tenth birthday and later met Mrs Blackburn. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Other number | LB.1007 - Linder Bequest catalogue no. |
| Collection | |
| Library number | BP.428 |
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| Record created | July 28, 2016 |
| Record URL |
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