Beatrix Potter's Animals

Although children’s book illustrators were creating animals in humanized form for nearly half a century before Beatrix Potter, Potter brought a new sensibility to her style of illustration. She had spent her youth closely observing and drawing the flora and fauna about her, so the recreation of animals in their native habitats came naturally to her.  Although dressed in human clothes and performing human actions, Potter’s animals nevertheless move and pose in ways natural to animals – a depiction only made possible through her thorough observation of animal behavior.

Beatrix Potter’s animals presents many of Beatrix Potter’s most beloved animals. Although best known for her rabbits, Potter also featured mice, cats, squirrels, and many others in her stories. From her very first published illustrations in A Happy Pair, these animals depict Potter’s characteristic sensitivity to animals in nature. Displayed are some of her most iconic creatures: squirrels, mice, cats, and, of course, rabbits.