Study of a grey-brown spider (Linyphia triangularis)
Watercolour
ca. 1887 (drawn)
ca. 1887 (drawn)
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.
From early childhood Beatrix Potter spent time drawing the many pets that she kept in her schoolroom: over the years, her pets included lizards, snails, bats, mice, rabbits and many other animals. During the family’s long summer holidays to rural areas she also took the opportunity to draw the plants and animals she saw in the countryside. Even her earliest childhood drawings show a serious interest in natural history, her sketches annotated with information about the species concerned.
As a young woman Beatrix Potter studied natural history with some seriousness, exploring the collections of the Natural History Museum, including the insect cases and fungi specimens. She had a collector’s cabinet full of specimens at home, from shells to dead butterflies and moths, and used a magnifying glass and a microscope to examine them more closely. She made numerous carefully observed studies of animals and plants from life.
This detailed and highly magnified study appears to relate to a lithograph that Potter made illustrating a particular spider species: Linyphia triangularis. The lithograph also includes four enlarged details of the spider. There is an impression of this print in the Linder Bequest (museum number BP.367).
From early childhood Beatrix Potter spent time drawing the many pets that she kept in her schoolroom: over the years, her pets included lizards, snails, bats, mice, rabbits and many other animals. During the family’s long summer holidays to rural areas she also took the opportunity to draw the plants and animals she saw in the countryside. Even her earliest childhood drawings show a serious interest in natural history, her sketches annotated with information about the species concerned.
As a young woman Beatrix Potter studied natural history with some seriousness, exploring the collections of the Natural History Museum, including the insect cases and fungi specimens. She had a collector’s cabinet full of specimens at home, from shells to dead butterflies and moths, and used a magnifying glass and a microscope to examine them more closely. She made numerous carefully observed studies of animals and plants from life.
This detailed and highly magnified study appears to relate to a lithograph that Potter made illustrating a particular spider species: Linyphia triangularis. The lithograph also includes four enlarged details of the spider. There is an impression of this print in the Linder Bequest (museum number BP.367).
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Title | Study of a grey-brown spider (Linyphia triangularis) |
Materials and techniques | Watercolour and pen and ink on card |
Brief description | Drawing; study of a spider (Linyphia triangularis), by Beatrix Potter, ca.1887; Linder Bequest cat. no. LB.343. |
Physical description | Detailed study of a spider, grey-brown and white in colour. |
Dimensions |
|
Style | |
Production type | Unique |
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, 1887. 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. From early childhood Beatrix Potter spent time drawing the many pets that she kept in her schoolroom: over the years, her pets included lizards, snails, bats, mice, rabbits and many other animals. During the family’s long summer holidays to rural areas she also took the opportunity to draw the plants and animals she saw in the countryside. Even her earliest childhood drawings show a serious interest in natural history, her sketches annotated with information about the species concerned. As a young woman Beatrix Potter studied natural history with some seriousness, exploring the collections of the Natural History Museum, including the insect cases and fungi specimens. She had a collector’s cabinet full of specimens at home, from shells to dead butterflies and moths, and used a magnifying glass and a microscope to examine them more closely. She made numerous carefully observed studies of animals and plants from life. This detailed and highly magnified study appears to relate to a lithograph that Potter made illustrating a particular spider species: Linyphia triangularis. The lithograph also includes four enlarged details of the spider. There is an impression of this print in the Linder Bequest (museum number BP.367). |
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.37; no.343
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.37; no.343 |
Other number | LB.343 - Linder Bequest catalogue no. |
Collection | |
Library number | BP.253 |
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Record created | January 5, 2017 |
Record URL |
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