About the Artwork

THE TALE OF SQUIRREL NUTKIN published 1903

In 1901, Beatrix Potter was spending the summer with her family in Lingholm, a house on the shores of Derwentwater in the Lake District. She wrote a letter all about squirrels she saw there to eight-year-old Norah Moore, daughter of her former governess: “An old lady who lives on the island says she thinks they come over the lake when her nuts are ripe; but I wonder how they can get across the water? Perhaps they have little rafts!” The letter then goes on to relate the story of Squirrel Nutkin, the cheeky squirrel who is finally punished by Old Brown, an owl whom Beatrix has substituted for the old lady of the letter. The finished book was dedicated to Norah. It contains many views of the beautiful lake, Derwentwater, largely unchanged today.