Not on display

This object consists of 2 parts, some of which may be located elsewhere.

The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse

Watercolour
ca.1905 (drawn)
Artist/Maker
Beatrix Potter (artist)
Place of origin
Great Britain (drawn)

Drawing in watercolour and pen and ink over pencil. A field vole sits at the entrance to his nest, gesticulating with his fore-paws, some ears of wheat beside him. A house mouse in a long grey-blue greatcoat approaches him from the right foreground, carrying a Gladstone bag in his left fore-paw and a walking stick and umbrella ends are visible wrapped up in a green and bright orange travelling rug in his right fore-paw. There is an asymmetrical partial border around the scene in subdued greens and browns containing mosses, grasses and ivy-leaved toadflax.

Object details

Categories
Animals and Wildlife
Anthropomorphism
Children & Childhood
Illustration
Watercolours
Woman Artist
Object type
Watercolour
Parts
This object consists of 2 parts.

  • Watercolour (Painting)
  • Mount
TitleThe Country Mouse and the Town Mouse (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour and pen and ink over pencil on paper
Ink
Pencil
Paper (Fiber Product)
Watercolour (Paint)
Watercolour Painting (Technique)
Brief description
Drawing, The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse, watercolour and pen and ink over pencil, by Beatrix Potter, Great Britain, ca.1905, Linder Collection object no. LC.21.B.2, catalogue no. 5.3
Physical description
Drawing in watercolour and pen and ink over pencil. A field vole sits at the entrance to his nest, gesticulating with his fore-paws, some ears of wheat beside him. A house mouse in a long grey-blue greatcoat approaches him from the right foreground, carrying a Gladstone bag in his left fore-paw and a walking stick and umbrella ends are visible wrapped up in a green and bright orange travelling rug in his right fore-paw. There is an asymmetrical partial border around the scene in subdued greens and browns containing mosses, grasses and ivy-leaved toadflax.
Dimensions
  • Height: 263mm
  • Width: 211mm
Size of card.
Production typeUnique
Marks and inscriptions
'The Country Mouse / and / the Town Mouse.' (Inscribed in ink, bottom left, in decorative lettering.)
Gallery label
(August 2022)
In a 1905 drawing titled ‘The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse’, Potter depicted the visiting town mouse clothed and carrying an umbrella and walking stick wrapped inside a rug. When she planned a new storybook, Potter adapted the image for the book’s cover. At first, she intended the new book’s title to be The Tale of Timmie Willie or A Tale of a Country Mouse, but when it changed to The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse, she had to alter the beginning by adding: ‘Johnny Town-Mouse was born in a cupboard.’
Credit line
Given by the Linder Collection
Object history
Given by Leslie Linder (1904-1973) to the National Book League (now the Book Trust) in 1970 as part of a representative selection of Beatrix Potter's work. This selection, comprising 279 drawings and 38 early editions and now known as the Linder Collection, was formerly on long-term loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum between 1989 and 2019 form the charitable trust, The Linder Trust.
Subjects depicted
Mouse
Greatcoat
Gladstone Bag
Rug
Wheat
Literary referenceAesop, The town mouse and the country mouse
Associated object
LC.21/B/3 (Pair)
Bibliographic references
  • Hobbs, Anne Stevenson (compiler). The Linder Collection of the works and drawings of Beatrix Potter: catalogue of works on paper. London: The Trustees of the Linder Collection, 1996 (1999 reprint). p.45, cat. no. 5.3
  • Potter, Beatrix. The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse. London: Frederick Warne & Co., 1918.
Other numbers
  • LOAN:LINDER TRUST.197-1994 - Previous Loan Number
  • 5.3 - Linder Collection catalogue no.
Collection
National Art Library
Library number
LC 21/B/2

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Record createdJuly 30, 2013
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1268105/the-country-mouse-and-the-watercolour-beatrix-potter/
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