Details
POTTER, BEATRIX. Fawe Park Garden. A large original watercolor drawing of a cat asleep in a garden. Dated 1903. 293 x 226 mm. (11½ x 8 7/8 in.). Inscribed and signed by Potter at the lower left: "Beatrix Potter Fawe Park Aug. 1903."
During the Summer of 1903, the Potter family stayed at Fawe Park on the shores of Derwentwater, adjacent to Lingholm. It was here that Beatrix worked on The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, using the gardens for many of the backgrounds. "They provided ideal sketching material for Beatrix, who found that she much preferred the unpretentious to the grandiose. As a result, and given the fine weather of that particular summer, there is a remarkable series of background sketches for this book."--The Artist and Her World, p. 116. In a letter to Norman Warne Potter writes of her stay: "I think I have done every imaginable rabbit background, & miscellaneous sketches as well - about 70! I hope you will like them..."--See Taylor, Letters, p. 81. This "sketch" is of very high quality and much more a finished work than the backgrounds which appear in the published version. The napping cat in the foreground resembles closely the cat who appears in the story (see p. 59) and is chased off by Old Mr. Bunny to save the mischievous little Benjamin trapped beneath a basket.
During the Summer of 1903, the Potter family stayed at Fawe Park on the shores of Derwentwater, adjacent to Lingholm. It was here that Beatrix worked on The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, using the gardens for many of the backgrounds. "They provided ideal sketching material for Beatrix, who found that she much preferred the unpretentious to the grandiose. As a result, and given the fine weather of that particular summer, there is a remarkable series of background sketches for this book."--The Artist and Her World, p. 116. In a letter to Norman Warne Potter writes of her stay: "I think I have done every imaginable rabbit background, & miscellaneous sketches as well - about 70! I hope you will like them..."--See Taylor, Letters, p. 81. This "sketch" is of very high quality and much more a finished work than the backgrounds which appear in the published version. The napping cat in the foreground resembles closely the cat who appears in the story (see p. 59) and is chased off by Old Mr. Bunny to save the mischievous little Benjamin trapped beneath a basket.
Provenance
Purchased at Sotheby's, London, June 10, 1975.