About the Artwork

THE TALE OF BENJAMIN BUNNY published 1904

The real-life Benjamin Bunny was a tame rabbit of Beatrix Potter’s, whom she sketched constantly, and whose exploits continually amused her. “He is an abject coward, but believes in bluster, could stare our old dog out of countenance, chase a cat that has turned tail.” Although Benjamin died in 1904, when this story was published, Beatrix may well have been thinking of him when she created Peter Rabbit’s cousin, Benjamin. Little Benjamin is a very self-possessed animal, who makes himself quite at home in Mr. McGregor’s garden.

Beatrix sketched background scenes for the tale while on holiday at Fawe Park, a house with a beautiful garden in the Lake District.  The book is dedicated to “the children of Sawrey from Old Mr. Bunny.” Beatrix Potter was later to settle in the Lake District village of Sawrey, buying a small farm there in 1905.

About the Artist

Beatrix Potter was born in London in 1866 and grew up living the conventionally sheltered life of a Victorian girl in a well-to-do household. She was educated at home by a governess with her brother Bertram.  Her constant companions were the pet animal she kept which she enjoyed studying and sketching.  On summer holidays she delighted in exploring the countryside and learning about plants and animals from her own observations. Beatrix Potter devoted most of her energy to the study of natural history – archaeology, geology, entomology and, especially, mycology. Fungi appealed to Potter’s imagination, both for their evanescent habits and for their coloration. Encouraged by Charles McIntosh, a revered Scottish naturalist, to make her fungi drawings more technically accurate, Potter not only produced beautiful watercolours, but also became an adept scientific illustrator. By 1896 Beatrix Potter had developed her own theory of how fungi spores reproduced and wrote a paper, ‘On the Germination of the Spores of Agaricineae‘. This was presented to a meeting of the Linnean Society on 1 April 1897 by one of the mycologists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, since women could not attend Society meetings. Her paper has since been lost. Beatrix Potter’s career as a children’s illustrator and storyteller began when The Tale of Peter Rabbit was published by Frederick Warne and Co. in 1902.  The public loved it as soon as it appeared and Beatrix went on to produce on average two books a year until 1910.