Spray of yellow forsythia thumbnail 1
Not on display

Spray of yellow forsythia

Watercolour
ca.1880 (made)
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.

Beatrix began drawing at an early age. By the age of eight she was filling homemade sketchbooks with scientific studies of animals and insects. Flowers, too, were a favourite subject; she trained her eye and hand by copying the outlines of foxgloves, periwinkles and daffodils in Vere Foster's Drawing Books. Beatrix's parents, Rupert and Helen, nurtured and encouraged Beatrix's extraordinary artistic talent. From the age of twelve to seventeen Beatrix was tutored in art by a Miss Cameron from whom she learnt 'freehand, model, geometry, perspective and a little water-colour flower painting' (Journal, 28 May 1883).

Beatrix's juvenile observations of animals and flowers were to develop into a lifelong passion for scientific investigation. She even learned to prepare slides of specimens to view with her brother’s microscope. Although Beatrix was never taken seriously as a scientist in her lifetime, her mature natural history studies demonstrate an acute power of scientific observation. Fascination with scientific accuracy underpins Beatrix’s artistic technique. Flowers create an exquisite backdrop to several of her tales, most notably The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-pan, and she observes them with astonishing attention to detail.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleSpray of yellow forsythia (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour and pencil on paper
Brief description
Drawing of a spray of yellow forsythia by Beatrix Potter, ca.1880.
Physical description
Watercolour and pencil drawing of a spray of yellow forsythia, drawn on the top-most sheet of a sketchblock of watercolour paper produced by Reeves & Sons, Ltd. The sketchblock originally contained 24 sheets of paper. The manufacturer's label is pasted on the lower cover of the sketchblock.
Dimensions
  • Height: 180mm
  • Width: 256mm
  • Depth: 10mm
Production typeUnique
Credit line
Given by Joan Duke
Object history
Drawn by Beatrix Potter ca.1880 on a sketchblock produced by Reeves & Sons, Ltd. Acquired by the V&A from Joan Duke in October 2006.
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.

Beatrix began drawing at an early age. By the age of eight she was filling homemade sketchbooks with scientific studies of animals and insects. Flowers, too, were a favourite subject; she trained her eye and hand by copying the outlines of foxgloves, periwinkles and daffodils in Vere Foster's Drawing Books. Beatrix's parents, Rupert and Helen, nurtured and encouraged Beatrix's extraordinary artistic talent. From the age of twelve to seventeen Beatrix was tutored in art by a Miss Cameron from whom she learnt 'freehand, model, geometry, perspective and a little water-colour flower painting' (Journal, 28 May 1883).

Beatrix's juvenile observations of animals and flowers were to develop into a lifelong passion for scientific investigation. She even learned to prepare slides of specimens to view with her brother’s microscope. Although Beatrix was never taken seriously as a scientist in her lifetime, her mature natural history studies demonstrate an acute power of scientific observation. Fascination with scientific accuracy underpins Beatrix’s artistic technique. Flowers create an exquisite backdrop to several of her tales, most notably The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-pan, and she observes them with astonishing attention to detail.
Other number
AAD/2006/4/454 - Archive number
Collection
Accession number
AR.4:454-2006

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Record createdJune 28, 2007
Record URL
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