{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1256725"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1256725/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018LG8323/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018LG8323/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2018LG8323","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1256725","accessionNumber":"AR.14:38-1983","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[{"title":"View of Furness Abbey","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 the ruins of the Cistercian monastery, Furness  Abbey, or St. Mary of Furness, located between Dalton-in-Furness and Barrow-in-Furness and  visited by the Potter family on 13 September 1900.  The ruins have long been a popular  tourist attraction; William Wordsworth referred to the abbey in his 1805 autobiographical  poem The Prelude , and Turner made numerous etchings of the Abbey. \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 ruins, Furness Abbey.  Grass in the foreground. Four figures, one holding an umbrella, are entering the ruins on the right of the photograph.","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":"Architecture","id":"THES48993"},{"text":"Religion","id":"THES48900"},{"text":"Christianity","id":"THES48978"},{"text":"Tourism & Travel","id":"THES250702"},{"text":"Scotland","id":"THES262877"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2018LG8323"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES317922"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Furness Abbey","id":"THES253036"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"7 August 1908","earliest":"1908-08-07","latest":"1908-08-07"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Joan Duke.","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"120","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"164","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'Aug 7 1908 / Sp. N & G. 78.80 / R 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":"Pencil inscription by Rupert Potter on verso."}],"objectHistory":"Photographed by Rupert Potter on 7 August 1908. Photograph given to the Museum by Joan Duke in 1983.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Photograph depicting a view of Furness Abbey, Cumbria; albumen print by Rupert Potter, 7 August 1908.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Furness Abbey","id":"THES253036"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"ruins","id":"AAT8057"},{"text":"abbeys","id":"AAT642"},{"text":"monasteries","id":"AAT641"},{"text":"Cistercian","id":"AAT148071"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["AR.14:38-1983"],"accessionNumberNum":"14","accessionNumberPrefix":"AR","accessionYear":1983,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"V&A Archive number","id":"THES54576"},"number":"AAD/1983/14/38"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-03-10","recordCreationDate":"2012-10-25","availableToBook":true}}