Beatrix Potter, Serious Artist (265 words)

Last fall I was lucky enough to wander into a Beatrix Potter exhibition at the V&A Museum in London. I confess I had a bit of a sure-why-not attitude. (Sidenote: I was there primarily to see a show on South Korean design, which did not disappoint.)

And then I saw this.

Beatrix Potter watercolor of a Roman shoe

And this.

Beatrix Potter watercolor studies of fossils

I had no idea that the artist behind the Peter Rabbit et al. juggernaut also painted stark, graphic watercolors of fossils and antiquities—and painted them so well. Indeed, I hastily snapped these photos thinking I would track down something better, only to find there is almost nothing to be found about Potter's archaeological studies online.

Potter is somewhat known as a naturalist (her extensive studies of fungi led to a paper she presented which, according to the Armitt Museum's website, "was not considered worthwhile at the time, but proved to be right in later years"). But I think she's been overlooked as a serious artist, and perhaps even as a scientist. Really: why hasn't someplace like the Met shown these archaeological works?

Perhaps that's the whole point of the exhibition I saw, Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature, which is currently touring the U.S. (now at the High Museum in Atlanta; going to the Morgan Library in February 2024). Maybe they're trying to get people to look past the bunnies and hedgehogs in waistcoats.

Should you happen to be in a city that's hosting this show, don't miss it. Potter's studies of animals, her landscape watercolors—it's all great.

Beatrix Potter, View from the Drawing Room Window at Camfield Place, c. 1884. Watercolor. V&A Museum