'What kind of lookin' man is dis Mr. Billy Malone?'
Drawing
September 1895 (made)
September 1895 (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, ‘In Some Lady’s Garden’, Brer Rabbit pretends to be a ‘Mr. Billy Malone’.
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, ‘In Some Lady’s Garden’, Brer Rabbit pretends to be a ‘Mr. Billy Malone’.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | 'What kind of lookin' man is dis Mr. Billy Malone?' |
| Materials and techniques | pencil and pen and ink on paper and card |
| Brief description | Pencil and pen and ink illustration to the Uncle Remus stories compiled by Joel Chandler Harris, drawn by Beatrix Potter, September 1895; Linder Bequest cat. no. LB.980 |
| Physical description | A mounted illustration, laid down on card, of a well-dressed rabbit entering a garden holding an empty shopping bag and an umbrella, while a little girl looks on through an open gate. There is a drawing of the rabbit running away as well as some text on the mount. |
| Dimensions |
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| 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 September 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, ‘In Some Lady’s Garden’, Brer Rabbit pretends to be a ‘Mr. Billy Malone’. |
| 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.109; no.980
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.109; no.980 |
| Other number | LB.980 - Linder Bequest catalogue no. |
| Collection | |
| Library number | BP.459 |
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| Record created | November 16, 2016 |
| Record URL |
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