'Brer Fox he look at Brer Rabbit'
Drawing
November 1896 (made)
November 1896 (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.
Before publishing her own stories from 1901, Beatrix Potter illustrated fairy tales and classic texts, largely to amuse herself and to develop her technique. She enjoyed the African-American Uncle Remus folktales, with their trickster protagonist, ‘Brer Rabbit’, and American setting. Joel Chandler Harris’s compilation of the stories, now controversial, had been published in 1880 as Uncle Remus: his Songs and his Sayings.
Each of Potter's illustrations for Uncle Remus includes a single scene surrounded by a border and some text, as seen here. The animal characters, language and humour seen in Uncle Remus all appealed to Beatrix Potter as she was developing her own written and illustrative work. In the tale illustrated in this drawing, ‘Mr. Fox goes a-Hunting’, Brer Rabbit overcomes the fox using his own cunning once more. Potter used her pet rabbit, Peter Piper, as the model for Brer Rabbit.
Before publishing her own stories from 1901, Beatrix Potter illustrated fairy tales and classic texts, largely to amuse herself and to develop her technique. She enjoyed the African-American Uncle Remus folktales, with their trickster protagonist, ‘Brer Rabbit’, and American setting. Joel Chandler Harris’s compilation of the stories, now controversial, had been published in 1880 as Uncle Remus: his Songs and his Sayings.
Each of Potter's illustrations for Uncle Remus includes a single scene surrounded by a border and some text, as seen here. The animal characters, language and humour seen in Uncle Remus all appealed to Beatrix Potter as she was developing her own written and illustrative work. In the tale illustrated in this drawing, ‘Mr. Fox goes a-Hunting’, Brer Rabbit overcomes the fox using his own cunning once more. Potter used her pet rabbit, Peter Piper, as the model for Brer Rabbit.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | 'Brer Fox he look at Brer Rabbit' |
| Materials and techniques | pencil on paper; border completed in pen and ink on card |
| Brief description | Pencil and pen and ink illustration to the Uncle Remus stories compiled by Joel Chandler Harris, drawn by Beatrix Potter, November 1896; Linder Bequest cat. no. LB.979 |
| Physical description | A mounted illustrated of a fox with a gun in a wood, looking at a 'dead' rabbit beneath a tree. On the card mount is sketched a rabbit lying beside a game bag, looking at it, with faint outline of a tree and also lines of text. |
| Dimensions |
|
| 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 in November 1895. 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. Before publishing her own stories from 1901, Beatrix Potter illustrated fairy tales and classic texts, largely to amuse herself and to develop her technique. She enjoyed the African-American Uncle Remus folktales, with their trickster protagonist, ‘Brer Rabbit’, and American setting. Joel Chandler Harris’s compilation of the stories, now controversial, had been published in 1880 as Uncle Remus: his Songs and his Sayings. Each of Potter's illustrations for Uncle Remus includes a single scene surrounded by a border and some text, as seen here. The animal characters, language and humour seen in Uncle Remus all appealed to Beatrix Potter as she was developing her own written and illustrative work. In the tale illustrated in this drawing, ‘Mr. Fox goes a-Hunting’, Brer Rabbit overcomes the fox using his own cunning once more. Potter used her pet rabbit, Peter Piper, as the model for Brer Rabbit. |
| Bibliographic references |
|
| Other number | LB.979 - Linder Bequest catalogue no. |
| Collection | |
| Library number | BP.458 |
About this object record
Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
| Record created | November 16, 2016 |
| Record URL |
Download as: JSON
