Beatrix Potter | "He lost one of his shoes among the cabbages...", ink and watercolour drawing

Beatrix Potter

"He lost one of his shoes among the cabbages..."

fine ink and watercolour drawing heightened with gouache, unsigned, 89 x 80 mm (sheet size 163 x 203 mm), mounted, framed and glazed (mount size 290 x 250 mm), some minor spotting and browning, pin holes at corners

THE ONLY CONTEMPORARY BEATRIX POTTER ILLUSTRATION FOR PETER RABBIT LIKELY TO BE OFFERED FOR SALE.

This watercolour is an alternative illustration for The Tale of Peter Rabbit. It shows Peter's diminutive shoe abandoned in a cabbage patch following his narrow escape from Mr McGregor, and being examined by a curious (or territorial) robin. It is a fine example of Potter's close attention to the natural world, perhaps especially in her depiction of young spring cabbages with their slightly fleshy leaves.

The privately printed Peter Rabbit shows a robin examining a shoe in a cabbage patch but with the robin and shoe in the centre of the page. Between January and April 1902 Potter revised the black and white drawings to produce a smaller number of coloured illustrations for commercial publication by Warne. The robin in the cabbage patch was retained but in a slightly different composition. Taylor notes in That Naughty Rabbit that when Potter delivered the coloured illustrations to Warne "they were not entirely happy and asked her to do some of them again" (see Taylor, That Naughty Rabbit (London, 2002), p.46). It is known that one of the redrawn illustrations was of Mrs McGregor and the rabbit pie and this illustration is likely to have been another. Warne was probably concerned about the relative sizes of the rabbit's shoe and the bird: the published scene shows a slightly smaller rabbit shoe and a larger robin.

The fifth printing of Peter Rabbit in 1903 saw the removal of four illustrations, which were restored in 2002, and a 1907 printing allowed Potter to redraw two illustrations, although these were used for only six or seven years before Warne reverted to the originals. The centenary printing of The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 2002 added two new illustrations that had never previously appeared. Judy Taylor notes, of these new illustrations, "it is not known how many 'extra' illustrations Beatrix Potter produced for the first Frederick Warne edition of 1902 but these two... are the only ones known to have survived" (Taylor, pp.105–106).

This watercolour was part of a group of more than twenty original illustrations, books, cards, and letters that originated in the collection of the artist's brother, Bertram Potter, and were sold in these rooms in 2008. This group included a number of other previously unknown alternative versions of early works by Potter, notably three watercolours of "The Rabbit's Christmas Party" (one of which, "The Departure", sold for almost £290,000 and is still the auction record for a Potter watercolour). This was, however, the only watercolour from the Bertram Potter collection for her sister's books.

PROVENANCE:

Bertram Potter (1872–1918), the artist's brother; sale in these rooms, 17 July 2008, lot 292