Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Not currently on display at the V&A
On short term loan out for exhibition

Photograph of Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) and dog, 'Spot', in a boat on Derwentwater

Photograph
August 1887 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

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.

An artist himself, Rupert Potter (1832-1914) was probably the single greatest influence on his daughter's enduring passion for the arts and natural history and on her development as a writer and illustrator. Rupert took up photography in the 1860s when it was still a relatively new art form. An enthusiastic and skilled amateur, he was elected to the Photographic Society of London in 1869 and later contributed to photographic exhibitions. Closely observed by Beatrix, Rupert assisted the artist Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896), a close friend, by photographing backgrounds for paintings and sitters for portraits. Rupert's favourite subject, however, was Beatrix herself. Photography was an expensive and laborious process yet she appears to have endured patiently the elaborate choreography and the camera’s uncomfortably long exposure. Rupert's prolific legacy of several hundred photographs forms a broad pictorial account of Beatrix’s life from infancy to marriage.

During the family's extended summer holidays it was Beatrix's delight to accompany her father on photographic expeditions. In 1887 the Potters rented Lingholm, a house in Keswick overlooking Derwentwater. Rupert took many photographs of the surrounding landscapes, including this picture which captures perfectly the stillness of the lake and misty mountains behind. Excited by the possibilities of the new art form, Beatrix too became an avid photographer, inheriting one of her father’s old cameras, 'a most inconveniently heavy article which he refuses to use, and which has been breaking my back since I took to that profession.' (Journal, Friday 19th April 1895). Beatrix went on to employ photography in the service of her own art and, like Millais, she photographed details that she later incorporated in her imaginative book illustrations. In particular, her own photographs of Derwentwater and St. Herbert's Island informed the setting of her third little book, The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin (1903).


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitlePhotograph of Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) and dog, 'Spot', in a boat on Derwentwater (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Albumen print on paper
Brief description
Photograph of Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) and dog, 'Spot', in a boat at the edge of Derwentwater; albumen print by Rupert Potter (1832-1914), August 1887.
Physical description
Sepia photograph of a woman, Beatrix Potter, and a dog sitting in the stern of a boat with turned wooden rails, on the edge of a lake. Outline of misty fells in the background and low-lying trees. Shrubs on the bank of the lake in the foreground.
Dimensions
  • Height: 165mm
  • Width: 215mm
Marks and inscriptions
'Aug 1887' (Pencil inscription by Rupert Potter on verso)
Credit line
Given by Joan Duke
Object history
Photograph taken by Rupert Potter at Derwentwater in August 1887.
Subjects depicted
Place 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.

An artist himself, Rupert Potter (1832-1914) was probably the single greatest influence on his daughter's enduring passion for the arts and natural history and on her development as a writer and illustrator. Rupert took up photography in the 1860s when it was still a relatively new art form. An enthusiastic and skilled amateur, he was elected to the Photographic Society of London in 1869 and later contributed to photographic exhibitions. Closely observed by Beatrix, Rupert assisted the artist Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896), a close friend, by photographing backgrounds for paintings and sitters for portraits. Rupert's favourite subject, however, was Beatrix herself. Photography was an expensive and laborious process yet she appears to have endured patiently the elaborate choreography and the camera’s uncomfortably long exposure. Rupert's prolific legacy of several hundred photographs forms a broad pictorial account of Beatrix’s life from infancy to marriage.

During the family's extended summer holidays it was Beatrix's delight to accompany her father on photographic expeditions. In 1887 the Potters rented Lingholm, a house in Keswick overlooking Derwentwater. Rupert took many photographs of the surrounding landscapes, including this picture which captures perfectly the stillness of the lake and misty mountains behind. Excited by the possibilities of the new art form, Beatrix too became an avid photographer, inheriting one of her father’s old cameras, 'a most inconveniently heavy article which he refuses to use, and which has been breaking my back since I took to that profession.' (Journal, Friday 19th April 1895). Beatrix went on to employ photography in the service of her own art and, like Millais, she photographed details that she later incorporated in her imaginative book illustrations. In particular, her own photographs of Derwentwater and St. Herbert's Island informed the setting of her third little book, The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin (1903).
Collection
Accession number
E.746-2005

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Record createdDecember 9, 2008
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