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Beatrix Potter

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

(Helen) Beatrix Potter (later Heelis)

Sitter in 6 portraits
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 and was passionate about preserving the landscape and culture, bequeathing her 4,000 acres of land to the National Trust. She married her solicitor, William Heelis, in 1913.

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Rupert Potter; Beatrix Potter; (Walter) Bertram Potter

by Rupert Potter
albumen print, 1894
NPG P1822

Beatrix Potter; Rupert Potter; Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley

by Rupert Potter
albumen print, 11 September 1906
NPG P1823

Beatrix Potter; William Heelis

by Clarence Edmund Fry & Son
sepia-toned print, 1913
NPG P1824

Beatrix Potter

by Charles G.Y. King
vintage snapshot print, May 1913
NPG P1825

Beatrix Potter

by Charles G.Y. King
vintage snapshot print, May 1913
NPG P1826

Beatrix Potter

by Delmar Banner
oil on canvas, 1938
NPG 3635

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Beatrix Potter