Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), Children's writer and book illustrator

Beatrix Potter (Mrs Heelis)

Sitter in 1 portrait
Writer, artist and conservationist. Informally educated, Potter spent hours drawing in the Natural History Museum. Her children's stories, which she wrote and illustrated, began as letters to a child. The anthropomorphic characters of her Tales, Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin, Jemima Puddle-Duck and Tom Kitten, display an unsentimental observation of human nature. They have achieved international recognition, continuously published by Warne, and reproduced in ceramic, animated film and ballet. Potter farmed in the Lake District, bequeathing her land to the National Trust. She married her solicitor, William Heelis, in 1913.