Beatrix Potter1866–1943Watercolour
About the work
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.
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Potter's feelings for Norman Warne, the youngest of the three brothers at her publisher Frederick Warne & Co., developed as they worked together on the first of her little books. In July 1905 they became engaged much to the dismay of her parents, who disapproved of the match as Warne was 'in trade'. The Potters travelled to Wales for their long summer break for the year. In the meantime Norman became very ill and died on 25 August of lymphatic leukaemia. Potter only received the telegram letting her know that Norman was dying on the morning of the 25th. In her holiday diary relating to the period in Wales, she writes of sketching on the evening of 24 August. She writes in retrospect of how still and deathlike the evening seemed and how the field she was sketching was suddenly illuminated by 'a gleam of golden sunshine'.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Particulars
- Accession number
- BP.1082
Meanwhile, in the life of Beatrix Potter
The whole life1903
A patented Peter Rabbit toy: the birth of character merchandising
In 1903 Beatrix made and patented a Peter Rabbit doll — he became the first fictional character made into a patented soft toy, and so the oldest licensed character. Painting books, board games, wallpaper, figurines, baby blankets and china tea-sets followed under licence from her publisher Warne, earning her an independent income, and Harrods catalogues list Peter merchandise from at least 1910.
1903–1922
Two or three books a year with the editor Norman Warne
“The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin” and “The Tailor of Gloucester” followed “Peter Rabbit” in 1903 — both also began as picture letters to the Moore children. Working with the editor Norman Warne, Beatrix published two or three little books a year — 23 in all in that format, the last, in 1922, being “Cecily Parsley’s Nursery Rhymes”; the royalties gave her a degree of independence, though she still lived with her parents.
1905
Engagement to Norman Warne, and his death
In 1905 Beatrix and her publisher Norman Warne became unofficially engaged; her parents objected because Warne was “in trade” and so socially unsuitable. The engagement lasted only a month: Warne died of a blood disease at the age of 37.
1905
Buys Hill Top Farm in Near Sawrey
In 1905, with the proceeds of her books and a small legacy from an aunt, Beatrix bought Hill Top Farm in Near Sawrey in the Lake District, six miles west of Lake Windermere. She and Warne may have hoped it would be their holiday home, but after his death she went ahead with the purchase, as she had always wanted to own that farm and live in “that charming village”.
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