Rough sketch illustrating 'The Three Spinners'
Watercolour
ca.1890s (made)
ca.1890s (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.
In the 1890s Potter sketched illustrations for fairy tales including Cinderella, Puss-in-Boots, Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty. Her later idea to publish ‘a set of fairy tales in thin volumes’ never materialised, but some of her manuscripts and sketches survive.
This rough preparatory sketch is thought to relate to the Grimms' fairy tale The Three Spinners, in which three fairy women, one with a swollen foot, complete a huge amount of spinning for a beautiful but lazy girl. In Potter’s drawing the girl appears to greet the spinner with a swollen foot. She annotated the sheet: ‘Old fairy woman is rather good. She should have an enormous foot.’ Potter studied Grimms' fairy tales as a young woman and included a written version of this particular tale as Chapter 11, ‘Habbitrot’, in her later book, The Fairy Caravan (Alexander McKay, 1929). This drawing has also been associated with Snow White.
In the 1890s Potter sketched illustrations for fairy tales including Cinderella, Puss-in-Boots, Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty. Her later idea to publish ‘a set of fairy tales in thin volumes’ never materialised, but some of her manuscripts and sketches survive.
This rough preparatory sketch is thought to relate to the Grimms' fairy tale The Three Spinners, in which three fairy women, one with a swollen foot, complete a huge amount of spinning for a beautiful but lazy girl. In Potter’s drawing the girl appears to greet the spinner with a swollen foot. She annotated the sheet: ‘Old fairy woman is rather good. She should have an enormous foot.’ Potter studied Grimms' fairy tales as a young woman and included a written version of this particular tale as Chapter 11, ‘Habbitrot’, in her later book, The Fairy Caravan (Alexander McKay, 1929). This drawing has also been associated with Snow White.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Rough sketch illustrating 'The Three Spinners' |
| Materials and techniques | pencil and watercolour on paper |
| Brief description | Rough sketch illustrating the Grimms' fairy tale 'The Three Spinners' by Beatrix Potter, ca.1890s; Linder Bequest cat. no. LB.997. |
| Physical description | A rough pencil and watercolour design with a girl at the door of a house talking to a little old woman holding a distaff. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Style | |
| Production type | Unique |
| Marks and inscriptions |
|
| Credit line | Linder Bequest [plus object number; written on labels on the same line as the object number] |
| Object history | Drawn by Beatrix Potter, ca.1890s. 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. In the 1890s Potter sketched illustrations for fairy tales including Cinderella, Puss-in-Boots, Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty. Her later idea to publish ‘a set of fairy tales in thin volumes’ never materialised, but some of her manuscripts and sketches survive. This rough preparatory sketch is thought to relate to the Grimms' fairy tale The Three Spinners, in which three fairy women, one with a swollen foot, complete a huge amount of spinning for a beautiful but lazy girl. In Potter’s drawing the girl appears to greet the spinner with a swollen foot. She annotated the sheet: ‘Old fairy woman is rather good. She should have an enormous foot.’ Potter studied Grimms' fairy tales as a young woman and included a written version of this particular tale as Chapter 11, ‘Habbitrot’, in her later book, The Fairy Caravan (Alexander McKay, 1929). This drawing has also been associated with Snow White. |
| 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.110; no.997
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.110; no.997 |
| Other number | LB.997 - Linder Bequest catalogue no. |
| Collection | |
| Library number | BP.441 |
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| Record created | October 14, 2016 |
| Record URL |
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