About the Artwork

THE TALE OF TOM KITTEN published 1907

By the time Beatrix Potter started writing ‘The Tale of Tom Kitten’, she had owned Hill Top for a year.  The expansion of the farmhouse was finished, and Beatrix was enthusiastically planning her cottage garden. She could not completely desert her property for writing, and both the house and garden feature in the story.  Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit leads her children up the garden path to Hill Top’s front door, while inside we see its staircase and bedrooms.  The kittens romp through the garden’s flowers to jump on the wall overlooking Sawrey, and the ducks march across the farmyard. Beatrix used the same kitten as a model for both Miss Moppet and Tom. She dedicated this story to “all Pickles – especially those that get upon my garden wall”.