{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1255981"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1255981/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018LG8337/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018LG8337/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2018LG8337","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1255981","accessionNumber":"AR.14:12-1983","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[{"title":"View of Coniston Water","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Rupert Potter (1832-1914), father of the children's writer and illustrator Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), took up photography in the 1860s when it was still a relatively new art form.  An enthusiastic and skilled amateur, he was elected to the Photographic Society of London in 1869 and later contributed to photographic exhibitions.   Rupert assisted the artist Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896), a close friend, by photographing backgrounds for paintings and sitters for portraits. His favourite subject, however, was Beatrix herself and his prolific legacy  of several hundred photographs forms a broad pictorial account of her life from infancy to marriage.\r\n\r\nRupert was also a skilled landscape photographer.  During the Potter family's extended summer holidays to Scotland and the Lake District it was Beatrix's delight to accompany her father on photographic expeditions.  He photographed in particular the countryside around Eastwood in Dunkeld, Wray Castle near Ambleside and Lingholm on the edge of Derwentwater.  This photograph depicts a view across a lake, probably Coniston Water, taken in  September 1890 during the Potter family's summer retreat to Coniston Bank, a house overlooking Coniston Water.\r\n\r\nExcited by the possibilities of the new art form, Beatrix too became an avid photographer, inheriting one of her  father’s old cameras, 'a most inconveniently heavy article which he refuses to use, and which has been  breaking my back since I took to that profession.' (Journal, Friday 19th April 1895).  Beatrix went on to employ  photography in the service of her own art and, like Millais, she photographed details, particularly in the Lake  District landscapes, that she later incorporated in her imaginative book illustrations.","physicalDescription":"Photograph of a view of a lake in the mid distance with fields and fences in the foreground, trees by the water's edge and hills in the background.  Some dwellings are visible on the far bank of the lake.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Rupert Potter","id":"A19569"},"association":{"text":"photographer","id":"x43821"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"photographic paper","id":"AAT14190"}],"techniques":[{"text":"albumen process","id":"AAT133274"},{"text":"photography","id":"AAT54225"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Albumen print on paper","categories":[{"text":"Photographs","id":"THES48910"},{"text":"Landscapes","id":"THES250800"},{"text":"Tourism & Travel","id":"THES250702"},{"text":"Scotland","id":"THES262877"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2018LG8337"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES317922"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Coniston Water","id":"x43462"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"September 1890","earliest":"1890-09-01","latest":"1890-09-30"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Joan Duke","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"82","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"152","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'PHOTOGRAPHED BY / RUPERT POTTER'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Ink stamp on verso - printed twice."},{"content":"'Sep 1890'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Pencil inscription by Rupert Potter on verso."},{"content":"'Coniston?'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Pencil inscription by Joan Duke on verso."}],"objectHistory":"Photographed by Rupert Potter in September 1890. Given to the Museum by Joan Duke in 1983.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Photograph of a view of a lake, possibly Coniston Water, in September 1890; albumen print by Rupert Potter.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Coniston Water","id":"x43462"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["AR.14:12-1983"],"accessionNumberNum":"14","accessionNumberPrefix":"AR","accessionYear":1983,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"V&A Archive number","id":"THES54576"},"number":"AAD/1983/14/12"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-03-10","recordCreationDate":"2012-10-08","availableToBook":true}}