Beatrix Potter | Original watercolour of rabbit and basket, 1895, signed and dated

Beatrix Potter

Original watercolour illustration of rabbit and basket, 1895

pencil and watercolour illustration (112 x 77mm.), SIGNED AND DATED BY THE ARTIST on the lower right-hand margin ("H.B.P. 95"), framed and glazed (242 x 206mm.), wear to frame

"Now who is this knocking

at Cottontail's door?

Tap tappit! Tap tappit!

She's heard it before?

And when she peeps out

there is nobody there,

But a present of carrots

put down on the stair." (Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes, 1917).

This illustration was drawn at a very early stage in Beatrix Potter's career as a commercial illustrator. The publisher Ernest Nister had first bought a set of her drawings in 1892, and the composition, showing a rabbit opening a door to discover a Christmas basket of vegetables, is near-identical to that reproduced on the upper cover of Nister's 1893 publication Changing Pictures: A Book of Transformation Images. When the present drawing was displayed at Abbot Hall Art Gallery in 1966, the exhibition catalogue listed it as one of "Two pictures for The Tale of Peter Rabbit, drawn 1895". It is intriguing to consider this bunny as a prototype of Potter's most beloved literary creation, drawn six years before Peter Rabbit first hopped onto the pages of her classic The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1901). However Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes (1917) features a different composition of a female bunny (named as Peter's sister Cottontail) peeping out of a green door to find a basket of carrots left by Old Mr. Pricklepin.

Comparison of the present drawing against the earlier version used for Changing Pictures reveals a number of small compositional refinements, notably extra detail on the texture and colouring of the rabbit's fur. This subtle feature nevertheless demonstrates Potter's commitment to realism. The drawing must be fully appreciated not only in relation to the development of Potter's distinctive style of commercial book illustration, but also through the lens of her extensive amateur scientific enquiries, which included compiling detailed, accurate pictorial records of fungi.

This drawing also has a fascinating early provenance, having been acquired in 1913 by Margaret Ainsworth, wife of David Ainsworth MP, then owner of Wray Castle on Lake Windermere. At this time, the Ainsworths were neighbours of Potter, who, in 1905, had acquired Hill Top Farm, less than five miles away, as her country retreat. Wray Castle was a place of great early significance for Potter, who holidayed there as a child in 1882—during which time she met and befriended Hardwick Rawnsley, who would become a key mentor of her literary and artistic endeavours. Potter would doubtless have considered this location an appropriate home for one of her very earliest compositions.

PROVENANCE:

Given to Joan Mary McConnel by her cousin and godmother Margaret Ainsworth (née McConnel, 1838-1920, wife of David Ainsworth MP) of Wray Castle, Lake Windermere, as a christening present in c.1913; by family descent to the present owner

EXHIBITION:

Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, "Beatrix Potter 1866-1943: Centenary Exhibition", 12 February-20 March 1966, part of item 47 ("Lent by Mr K. Rees | Two pictures for The Tale of Peter Rabbit, drawn 1895")

LITERATURE:

"Potter, Beatrix", ODNB