{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1414792"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1414792/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020MM4784/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020MM4784/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2020MM4784","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London / courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KE0680","copyright":"© Frederick Warne & Co.","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1414792","accessionNumber":"BP.1438","objectType":"Watercolour","titles":[{"title":"Studies of a field vole","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\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\nThese sketches appear to show a field vole. It is possible they relate to the illustrations for Potter’s 1918 book, The Tale of Johnny Town-mouse, which includes the ‘country mouse’ character of Timmy Willie, who is really a field vole.\r\n","physicalDescription":"Seven pencil and watercolour studies of a field vole seen in various positions, all drawn on one side of a sheet of paper. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Beatrix Potter","id":"A18000"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"pencil","id":"x30347"},{"text":"paper (fiber product)","id":"AAT14109"},{"text":"watercolour (paint)","id":"AAT15045"}],"techniques":[{"text":"watercolour painting (technique)","id":"THES250889"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"pencil and watercolour on paper","categories":[{"text":"Drawings","id":"THES48966"},{"text":"Animals and Wildlife","id":"THES250852"},{"text":"Watercolours","id":"THES277714"},{"text":"Woman Artist","id":"THES387590"}],"styles":[{"text":"british","id":"AAT111159"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2020MM4784","2017KE0680"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLE","id":"THES49657"},"free":"","case":"SK Temp 7","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"watercolour (painting)","id":"AAT78925"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1905","earliest":"1900-01-01","latest":"1909-12-31"},"association":{"text":"drawn","id":"x30545"},"note":"based on stylistic comparison of studies in sketchbooks of similar date"}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Linder Bequest [plus object number; written on labels on the same line as the object number]","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"250","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"175","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":"Studies of a field vole by Beatrix Potter, ca. 1905; Linder Bequest cat. no. LB.328","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. 35; no. 328; described as 'Studies of the head and underparts of a harvest mouse(?)'","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. 35; no. 328; described as 'Studies of the head and underparts of a harvest mouse(?)'"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"voles","id":"THES259443"},{"text":"mouse","id":"x35692"},{"text":"mice","id":"AAT168291"},{"text":"natural history","id":"AAT251095"},{"text":"animals","id":"x30274"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"These sketches of a field vole probably relate to Potter’s preparations for The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse (1918). The story includes the character Timmy Willie, the country mouse, whom Potter depicted as a vole. Although mice and voles are different species, the vole is sometimes called a meadow mouse. Potter probably chose it for the story because voles never live in houses.","date":{"text":"August 2022","earliest":"2022-08-01","latest":"2022-08-31"}}],"partNumbers":["BP.1438"],"accessionNumberNum":"1438","accessionNumberPrefix":"BP","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Linder Bequest catalogue no.","id":"THES57120"},"number":"LB.328"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-02-09","recordCreationDate":"2017-10-04","availableToBook":false}}