{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1408543"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1408543/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019LL6603/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019LL6603/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2019LL6603","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London / courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB6212","copyright":"© Frederick Warne & Co.","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1408543","accessionNumber":"BP.912(VIII)","objectType":"Watercolour","titles":[{"title":"Violets and bluebells","type":""}],"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\nFrom early childhood Beatrix Potter spent time drawing the many pets that she kept in her schoolroom: over the years, her pets included lizards, snails, bats, mice, rabbits and many other animals. During the family’s long summer holidays to rural areas she also took the opportunity to draw the plants and animals she saw in the countryside. Even her earliest childhood drawings show a serious interest in natural history, her sketches annotated with information about the species concerned. \r\n\r\nAs a young woman Beatrix Potter studied natural history with some seriousness, exploring the collections of the Natural History Museum, including the insect cases and fungi specimens. She had a collector’s cabinet full of specimens, from shells to dead butterflies and moths, and used a magnifying glass and a microscope to examine them more closely. \r\n\r\nCarefully observed plant and flower studies like this sheet, which includes studies of both violets and bluebells, would have an impact on her book illustration; she later commented that the ‘careful botanical studies of my youth’ informed the reality of her imagined scenes.\r\n","physicalDescription":"A partly cut away sheet of card with an incomplete drawing of violets (left when sheet is horizontal) partly worked up with watercolour and pen and ink, and two bluebell stems (right when sheet is horizontal) finished in watercolour and pen and ink.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Beatrix Potter","id":"A18000"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"},{"text":"pencil","id":"x30347"},{"text":"card","id":"x30344"},{"text":"watercolour (paint)","id":"AAT15045"}],"techniques":[{"text":"watercolour painting (technique)","id":"THES250889"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"watercolour, pencil and pen and ink on card","categories":[{"text":"Botanical art","id":"THES277744"},{"text":"Gardens & Gardening","id":"THES49002"},{"text":"Watercolours","id":"THES277714"},{"text":"Woman Artist","id":"THES387590"}],"styles":[{"text":"british","id":"AAT111159"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2019LL6603","2017KB6212"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"006","id":"THES317968"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"watercolour (painting)","id":"AAT78925"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"late 19th century-early 20th century","earliest":"1850-01-01","latest":"1950-12-31"},"association":{"text":"drawn","id":"x30545"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Linder Bequest [plus object number; written on labels on the same line as the object number]","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"215","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"280","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Acquired by the V&A from Leslie Linder (1904-1973) in 1973 as part of the Linder Bequest, a collection of ca. 2150 watercolours, drawings, literary manuscripts, correspondence, books, photographs, and other memorabilia associated with Beatrix Potter and her family.   ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Watercolour, pencil and pen and ink sketches of violets and bluebells by Beatrix Potter, late 19th or early 20th century; Linder Bequest cat. no. LB.273.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Hobbs, Anne Stevenson, and Joyce Irene Whalley, eds. <u>Beatrix Potter: the V & A collection : the Leslie Linder bequest of Beatrix Potter material : watercolours, drawings, manuscripts, books, photographs and memorabilia.</u> London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1985.","id":"AUTH315806"},"details":"p. 31; no. 273","free":"Hobbs, Anne Stevenson, and Joyce Irene Whalley, eds. Beatrix Potter: the V & A collection: the Leslie Linder bequest of Beatrix Potter material: watercolours, drawings, manuscripts, books, photographs and memorabilia. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1985. p. 31; no. 273"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"natural history","id":"AAT251095"},{"text":"botanical illustration","id":"x38282"},{"text":"flowers","id":"x35571"},{"text":"wild flowers","id":"x38657"},{"text":"bluebells","id":"x44099"},{"text":"violets","id":"x31067"},{"text":"Natural History","id":"x34885"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["BP.912(VIII)"],"accessionNumberNum":"912","accessionNumberPrefix":"BP","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Linder Bequest catalogue no.","id":"THES57120"},"number":"LB.273"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-09-23","recordCreationDate":"2017-08-09","availableToBook":true}}