{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1256706"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1256706/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018LG8309/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018LG8309/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2018LG8309","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1256706","accessionNumber":"AR.14:24-1983","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[{"title":"View of Esthwaite 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  the countryside 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, Lingholm on the edge of Derwentwater and Tenby in Pembrokeshire. This photograph depicts a view from  Eeswyke, a house in Near Sawrey rented often by the Potter family for summer vacations in the Lake District.  The house was formerly known as Lakefield during the Potters' time and was built as a Lake District retreat for  a Lancashire mill owner in 1742; it is now a hotel.\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":"View of a lake in the mid distance with fields and trees in the foreground and hills rising in the distance.","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"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2018LG8309"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES317922"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Esthwaite Water","id":"x45929"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"Cumbria","id":"x29459"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"August 1900","earliest":"1900-08-01","latest":"1900-08-31"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Joan Duke.","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"162","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"215","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'Esthwaite from Lakefield'","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 on verso in unknown hand."},{"content":"'Aug. 1900'","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."}],"objectHistory":"Photographed by Rupert Potter in August 1900.  Photograph given to the Museum by Joan Duke in 1983.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"View of Esthwaite Water, Cumbria, from Lakefield House; albumen print by Rupert Potter, August 1900.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Esthwaite Water","id":"x45929"},{"text":"Cumbria","id":"x29459"},{"text":"Eeswyke","id":"THES252901"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"lakes","id":"AAT8680"},{"text":"hills","id":"AAT8777"},{"text":"trees","id":"AAT132410"},{"text":"natural landscapes","id":"AAT132294"},{"text":"views","id":"AAT15424"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["AR.14:24-1983"],"accessionNumberNum":"14","accessionNumberPrefix":"AR","accessionYear":1983,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"V&A Archive number","id":"THES54576"},"number":"AAD/1983/14/24"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-03-10","recordCreationDate":"2012-10-24","availableToBook":true}}