{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1257469"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1257469/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2026PM8126/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2026PM8126/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2026PM8126","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London / courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. ","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1257469","accessionNumber":"AR.14:42-1983","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[{"title":"Wedding photograph of Beatrix Potter and William Heelis","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) is one of the world's best-loved children's authors and illustrators. She wrote the  majority of the twenty-three Original Peter Rabbit Books between 1901 and 1913. The Tale of Peter Rabbit  (Frederick Warne, 1902) is her most famous and best-loved tale.\r\n\r\nAn artist himself, Rupert Potter (1832-1914) was probably the single greatest influence on his daughter's  enduring passion for the arts and natural history and on her development as a writer and illustrator. Rupert  took up photography in the 1860s when it was still a relatively new art form and was elected to the  Photographic Society of London in 1869. An enthusiastic and skilled amateur, he later contributed to  photographic exhibitions.  Closely observed by Beatrix, Rupert assisted Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896),  a close friend, by photographing backgrounds for paintings and sitters for portraits. Excited 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.\r\n\r\nRupert's favourite subject was Beatrix herself and during the family's extended summer holidays it was her  delight to accompany her father on photographic expeditions.  Rupert photographed his beloved daughter at  home in London and on holidays in Scotland and the Lake District; formal and sombre among family and friends but relaxed and playful among her pets.  This wedding photograph with her husband, William Heelis, was probably taken in the garden of her childhood home, 2 Bolton Gardens, on 14 October 1913. Photography was an expensive and  laborious process yet she appears to have endured patiently the elaborate choreography and the camera’s  uncomfortably long exposure. Rupert's prolific legacy of several hundred photographs forms a broad pictorial  account of Beatrix’s life from infancy to marriage.","physicalDescription":"Photograph of Beatrix Potter standing on the right of William Heelis who is seated with his right leg crossed over his left leg.  Beatrix wears a large hat and wool dress and jacket.","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":"Portraits","id":"THES48906"},{"text":"Photographs","id":"THES48910"},{"text":"Marriage","id":"THES48921"},{"text":"Wedding","id":"THES283897"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2026PM8126"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLE","id":"THES49657"},"free":"","case":"SK TEMP 10","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Bolton Gardens","id":"THES252623"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"14 October 1913","earliest":"1913-10-14","latest":"1913-10-14"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Joan Duke.","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"121","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"167","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'HB Potter / Wm Heelis / Oct 14 1913 / 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."},{"content":"'Wedding photograph'","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 on 14 October 1913. Photograph given to the Museum by Joan Duke in 1983.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Wedding photograph of Beatrix Potter and William Heelis, 14 October 1913; albumen print by Rupert Potter.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Bolton Gardens","id":"THES252623"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Beatrix Potter","id":"N3618"},{"text":"William Heelis","id":"AUTH321625"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"weddings","id":"AAT69158"},{"text":"portraits","id":"AAT15637"},{"text":"gardens","id":"AAT8090"},{"text":"paths","id":"AAT8321"},{"text":"walls","id":"AAT2469"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["AR.14:42-1983"],"accessionNumberNum":"14","accessionNumberPrefix":"AR","accessionYear":1983,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"V&A Archive number","id":"THES54576"},"number":"AAD/1983/14/42"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-04-01","recordCreationDate":"2012-11-20","availableToBook":false}}