Beatrix Potter Exhibit The First Museum. Nashville TN. April 17- September 7.

The Art of Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature

Experience the enchanting world of Beatrix Potter and celebrate her creative and ecological achievements in this magical, family-friendly exhibition. As the beloved English author and illustrator, Potter imagined a captivating world of animals and gardens in her first self-published book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, in 1901, followed by twenty-two other children’s books.

This exhibition showcases Potter's development of her stories and characters through letters, photographs, sketches, watercolors, and more. It also reveals her love of nature that extended beyond her books, as she engaged in scientific studies, farming, and land conservation. Drawn to Nature presents Potter's remarkable life and legacy in vibrant detail, allowing visitors to fully appreciate the different facets of her personality and creativity.

Helen Beatrix Potter was born to Rupert and Helen Potter on July 28, 1866, in Kensington, London. Her parents were bourgeois Victorians who lived on inheritances from their families’ cotton trade during the industrial era. Though Rupert was a qualified barrister, he spent his time focusing on his passion for art and photography. Helen, an embroiderer and watercolorist, joined him in an active social life filled with writers, artists, and politicians, among them Sir John Everett Millais. Beatrix and her brother Bertram Potter showed promise as artists from a young age, constantly sketching animals from their classroom menagerie. Taught by governesses, including Annie Moore, in their home classroom, the children kept a multitude of pets for study, even smuggling in hedgehogs, mice, and frogs from the garden. This love of animals continued to grow as the Potters traveled north every summer, first to Perthshire in Scotland, and later to the Lake District in Cumbria, England, which became an integral part of Beatrix’s life and a great inspiration for her art.

Beatrix spent time observing and sketching plants, animals, and insects with a detailed eye during her summers in the north. She copied from books and drawing manuals and studied the works of John Constable, Thomas Gainsborough, and J.M.W. Turner. Beatrix was primarily self-taught, and she felt that if she had been formally educated, it would have rubbed off some of her originality. As she grew older, Beatrix became a talented naturalist and developed an interest in fungi. Invited to study fungi by the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, she produced hundreds of detailed botanical drawings and investigated fungi’s cultivation and growth.

Beatrix’s illustration career started from humble beginnings, with drawings of some of her favorite stories. She illustrated her own versions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Cinderella, and as always, avidly drew from nature.

This led to her first publishing opportunity with Hildesheimer & Faulkner in 1890, when her art was utilized for greeting card designs and book illustrations.

Beatrix wrote an illustrated letter to her former governess, Annie Moore’s son, Noël, in September 1893 about a rabbit named Peter. She had gathered inspiration from her two pet rabbits, and this letter told the story of Peter Rabbit and his family, as well as his misadventure in Mr. McGregor’s garden.

In 1901, after being rejected by six publishers, Beatrix decided to publish Peter Rabbit on her own. Her book was instantly successful, and a copy made its way back to Frederick Warne & Co., prompting them to reconsider their decision and offer to publish her work.

After her initial success with Peter Rabbit, Beatrix went on to publish many more stories with Frederick Warne & Co. She designed and sewed the first Peter Rabbit doll, realizing the opportunity for merchandising, making Peter Rabbit the world’s oldest licensed literary character.