ExhibitionsBeatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature
Current Exhibition

Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature

October 13, 2023 – January 7, 2024

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Members and Museum Pass: Free
Not-Yet-Members: $18.50

Ever since Peter Rabbit first scampered around Mr. McGregor’s garden and onto the page in 1901, Beatrix Potter’s storybooks have captivated millions of children around the world. But the adventures of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck, and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, to name a few, are just one part of Beatrix’s enduring legacy.

Born in London in 1866, Helen Beatrix Potter was a town mouse longing to be a country mouse. She was passionate about animals and the natural world. Although this sparked her career as a world-famous author and illustrator, it also led her to become a farmer, natural scientist, and preservationist. Her determination to create a meaningful life for herself led her to significant achievements in both art and science. This exhibition follows Beatrix’s creative pursuits across illustration, scientific observation, narrative building, and preservation. Discover the boundless creativity, imagination, and curiosity of the woman behind the famous tales.

All works of art are by Beatrix Potter (English, 1866–1943), unless otherwise noted.

This exhibition is presented in conjunction with the Alliance Theatre’s world-premiere musical Into the Burrow: A Peter Rabbit™ Tale, a delightful family production on the Hertz Stage, October 14–December 23, 2023.

Studio portrait of Beatrix Potter, ca. 1892 

Andrew Finlay Mackenzie  
English, 1846–1940 
Studio portrait of Beatrix Potter, ca. 1892 
Albumen print on gilt-edged, lithographed card 
V&A: AAD/2006/4/472, Given by Joan Duke, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

Beatrix Potter, born July 28, 1866, in Kensington, London is best known for her storybooks featuring the adventures of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck, and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, to name a few. 

For the first forty-seven years of her life, Beatrix lived mostly in the same town house in Kensington. She came from a well-connected family—her ancestors from Lancashire had gained wealth and influence through calico printing and trade in luxury goods. By Beatrix’s time, the family had artistic and scientific connections near their London home, which gave her the opportunity and drive to expand her creative pursuits and scientific interests.  

Studio portrait of Beatrix Potter, ca. 1892

Beatrix Potter aged 15 with the family’s spaniel, Spot, ca. 1881

Rupert Potter 
English, 1832–1914 
Beatrix Potter aged 15 with the family’s spaniel, Spot, ca. 1881 
Photograph reproduced from an albumen print 
V&A: Linder Bequest BP.1425, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

Beatrix Potter aged 15 with the family’s spaniel, Spot, ca. 1881

A hedgehog, assumed to be Beatrix’s pet Mrs. Tiggy, ca. 1904–1905 

Watercolor and pencil on paper
V&A: Linder Bequest BP.495, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

Pot137 Original Size O4

Variant artwork for The Tale of Peter Rabbit, used in editions between 1907 and 1911

Watercolor, pen and ink, and pencil on paper
V&A: Linder Bequest BP.468, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

Variant artwork for The Tale of Peter Rabbit, used in editions between 1907 and 1911

Sketchbook used by Beatrix, aged nine, pages dated March 19–21, 1876

Watercolor and pencil on paper, stitched
V&A: Linder Bequest BP.741, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

Beatrix’s “irresistible desire to copy” began early in life. She had this sketchbook when she was nine and filled it with copies of illustrations and landscapes and flowers drawn from life. The pages shown here include her first known imaginative illustration, featuring hares who ice skate or battle with umbrellas in the windy weather.

Sketchbook used by Beatrix, aged nine, pages dated March 19–21, 1876

Magnified studies of a ground beetle (Carabus nemoralis), August 1887

Watercolor, pen and ink, and pencil on paper 
V&A: Linder Bequest BP.257, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

From the mid-1880s, Beatrix used microscopes to make nature studies. Later, she turned some into lithographs demonstrating insect life cycles for Miss Martineau, possibly Caroline, a family friend who lectured in natural science at Morley College. Beatrix visited the Museum of Natural History to study insect classification. As a woman, she found the male staff there frustrating. She said she alarmed them if she asked “the simplest question,” and with her natural shyness, she found, “if they take the line of being shocked it is perfectly awful.”

Magnified studies of a ground beetle (Carabus nemoralis), August 1887

Spring, the Nuttery (garden), Harescombe Grange, Gloucestershire, ca. 1903

Watercolor and pen and ink on paper
V&A: LC 4/A/1, Given by the Linder Collection, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

While staying with her relatives, the Huttons, in Gloucestershire, Beatrix kindled a lasting friendship with Caroline, a cousin who shared a similar passion for nature. They followed badger tracks and “poked around delightfully” for snails in the woods behind the garden of the Huttons’ home, Harescombe Grange, shown here.

Spring, the Nuttery (garden), Harescombe Grange, Gloucestershire, ca. 1903

Appley Dapply at a cupboard and running with a plate of tarts, 1891

Watercolor on paper
V&A: LC 29/A/1–2, Given by the Linder Collection, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

Pot238 Origcrp O4

The garden at Gwaynynog, Denbighshire, probably March 1909

Watercolor and pencil on paper
V&A: LC 27/B/3, Given by the Linder Collection, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

Gwaynynog was the North Wales home of the Burtons—Beatrix’s aunt, uncle, and cousin. Beatrix resented having to sneak her pets in under her aunt’s nose, but both the house and garden inspired her tastes. The garden was “not tidy, [but] the prettiest kind of garden, where bright old-fashioned flowers grow amongst currant bushes.” It later became the setting for The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies.

Pot306 Cropped To Image O4

Letters between Squirrel Nutkin, Twinkleberry Squirrel, and Rt Hon. O. Brown Esq. MP, undated, ca. 1902–1912

Ink on paper
V&A: AAD/1996/12/2/v–viii, Given by Lucie Carr, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

Beatrix sometimes continued her stories beyond her published books by creating miniature letters supposedly written by the characters. In the ones shown here, Nutkin and his brother, Twinkleberry, beg the Right Honorable Mr. Brown, MP, for Nutkin’s tail back. They manage to annoy the distinguished owl, who complains that the tail almost choked him.

Letters between Squirrel Nutkin, Twinkleberry Squirrel, and Rt Hon. O. Brown Esq. MP, undated, ca. 1902–1912

Early endpaper design, second version, first used in December 1903

Watercolor, pen and ink, and pencil on paper, mounted on card
V&A: Linder Bequest BP.460, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

Beatrix believed that endpapers should be simple to “rest the eye” between the cover and the story, but in 1903, Frederick Warne & Co. decided that they wanted pictorial ones. Beatrix’s designs doubled as advertisement and branding—they changed from book to book as new stories and characters appeared. The second version shown here introduced the tailor mice and Squirrel Nutkin.

Pot270 Original Size O4

The garden at Ees Wyke, ca. 1900

Watercolor and pen and ink on paper
V&A: Linder Bequest BP.238, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

Beatrix Potter, The garden at Ees Wyke, ca. 1900

Monk Coniston Moor, drawn “7.00 morn,” November 16, 1909

Watercolor and pencil on paper
V&A: Linder Bequest BP.1057, courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd

Monk Coniston is a villa estate of over five thousand acres, made up of lakeshore parkland, farm and fell, and the designed landscape, Tarn Hows. Beatrix’s great-grandfather, Abraham Crompton, once owned Tilberthwaite Farm on the estate. Anxious that the estate would be lost to developers, Beatrix bought it in 1930, selling half to the National Trust and managing the rest until she bequeathed it to the charity.

Beatrix Potter, Monk Coniston Moor, drawn “7.00 morn,” November 16, 1909

This exhibition is organized by

A V&A exhibition – Touring the World

Premier Exhibition Series Sponsor 

Premier Exhibition Series Supporters

ACT Foundation, Inc.
William N. Banks, Jr.
Cousins Foundation
Burton M. Gold
Sarah and Jim Kennedy 

Benefactor Exhibition Series Supporters 

Robin and Hilton Howell  

Ambassador Exhibition Series Supporters

Mrs. Fay S. Howell/The Howell Fund
Karen and Jeb Hughes/Corporate Environments
Loomis Charitable Foundation
The Fred and Rita Richman Fund
Louise Sams and Jerome Grilhot
Mrs. Harriet H. Warren
Elizabeth and Chris Willett 

Contributing Exhibition Series Supporters 

Farideh and Al Azadi 
Sandra and Dan Baldwin
Mr. Joseph H. Boland, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Robin E. Delmer
Peggy Foreman
Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Jones
Joel Knox and Joan Marmo 
Margot and Danny McCaul 
Wade A. Rakes II and Nicholas Miller
USI Insurance Services 

Generous support is also provided by  

Alfred and Adele Davis Exhibition Endowment Fund , Anne Cox Chambers Exhibition Fund , Barbara Stewart Exhibition Fund, Dorothy Smith Hopkins Exhibition Endowment Fund, Eleanor McDonald Storza Exhibition Endowment Fund, The Fay and Barrett Howell Exhibition Fund, Forward Arts Foundation Exhibition Endowment Fund, Helen S. Lanier Endowment Fund, John H. and Wilhelmina D. Harland Exhibition Endowment Fund, Katherine Murphy Riley Special Exhibition Endowment Fund, Margaretta Taylor Exhibition Fund, RJR Nabisco Exhibition Endowment Fund