# - Potter, Beatrix.

151 by 149mm., fine ink and watercolour drawing heightened with gouache, signed lower right corner "HBP.", mounted, minor browning and spotting not affecting image, some soiling to blank border, slight crease, evidence of previous mounting on reverse

There is a slight crease running from the head to the foot of the leaf slightly affecting the image at certain angles. There is some minor browning that does not significantly affect the image. There is some evidence of a previous mounting on the reverse with the remnants of mounting tape. There are a few minor closed tears at the extremities of the leaf. The image is less blue than that printed in the published catalogue. The colours are bright and vivid.
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Beatrix Potter produced a series of six watercolours showing scenes from a Christmas party for rabbits around 1892. Linder described the sequence as "exquisite - some of the finest work Beatrix Potter ever produced" (The Art of Beatrix Potter, London, 1972, p.182). Whalley notes the watercolours as "among the most delightful sequences of paintings which Beatrix Potter produced..." (The Artist and Her World, p.52).

This, the first painting in the sequence, is widely known from another copy in the V&A Collection (V&A1003). It featured in the Linders' The Art of Beatrix Potter (London, 1972); Hobbs and Whalley, Beatrix Potter - The V&A Collection (London, 1985); Taylor, Whalley, Hobbs and Battrick, Beatrix Potter 1866-1943 - The Artist and Her World (London, 1987); Hobbs, Beatrix Potter's Art (London, 1989) and became the front cover illustration for the recent Dulwich Picture Gallery exhibition catalogue: Hobbs, Beatrix Potter - Artist and Illustrator (London, 2005).

That copy was originally given by Beatrix Potter to her aunt Lucy, wife of Sir Henry Roscoe. It was given to the V&A Collection as part of the Leslie Linder bequest. this present version, offered here, given by the artist to her brother is unknown.

Hobbs has noted the similarity to Renoir's Les Parapluies in the composition.