įrom the age of 15 until she was past 30, she recorded her everyday life in journals, using her own secret code. This is where she wrote and illustrated most of her books, and where much of the scenery and settings of the stories are based on. īeatrix lived on a Hill Top Farm in the Lake District and married the solicitor William Heelis. They were in fact, extremely popular and Potter went on to publish 20 more books in the next 27 years. I guess her first three books would be fairly important to her career, as their success and popularity would determine how many more she could publish. Later that year her third book was published, The Tailor of Gloucester. Here are some more sketches from the letters, only here the text has been printed. Here is a reproduction of the first page of the letter, with the first page of Peter Rabbit to compare it with. As for her art, Beatrix Potter was entirely self-trained.īeatrix Potter didn’t write or illustrate any stories until she was 27.When she was on a holiday in Scotland in 1893 she sent a letter with a story about rabbits to the five-year-old son of her last governess. Before that her governesses had only taught her the basics of reading and writing. Intellectual development of girls was discouraged in that time and so when Beatrix came of age her parents appointed her as housekeeper. In a way, Beatrix Potter’s stories of animals that have character and costuming have influenced almost all children’s books since then that have animals as main characters. So basically, the culture, time, and family that she was born into were the largest factors that influenced the subject and style of Potter’s illustrations. Much of Potter’s stories’ vocabulary and artistic practice stemmed from Joel Chandler Harris’s Uncle Remus stories. She produced many drawings and paintings in little hand-sewn books. She delighted in the countryside and collected specimens of plants, insects, and animals and took them home to study. Her family had several summer cottages and she also developed a love of landscape, flora and fauna, which she closely observed and painted. She also has drawn mice, cats, ducks, and hedgehogs and has used them all as characters. She watched the animals for hours on end and sketched them constantly, developing an early talent. Along with rabbits she had frogs, newts, ferrets, and even a pet bat. For example, her favorite pets were two rabbits named Peter and Benjamin. These pets were the inspiration for most of the characters in her books. This meant that as Beatrix was growing up she had many pets and she saw them as her friends and playmates. This basically defined who she was, as she was isolated from other children and wasn’t allowed to do what boys did. Born July 28 th 1866 in South Kensington, Londonĭied December 22 nd 1943 in Sawrey, Englandīeatrix Potter was born into a privileged household in 19 th Century England and was raised and educated by governesses.
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