By Susan Denyer
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First tagged by Rachel Marie Matta
Customer tags: beatrix potter(5), illustration(2), lake district(2), 113123121 cool, hilltop, gardening, interior design, near sawrey
Review & Description
The world famous artwork of Beatrix Potter needs little introduction — it is as beloved as the familiar children’s stories it illustrates. But few know of her work in the gardens and interiors of Hill Top, the farmhouse Potter purchased in 1905. The estate and surrounding scenery inspired many of Potter’s stories and illustrations, and this gorgeously illustrated book shows Potter’s homes and her magnificent gardens beside those drawings, revealing the real-life sources for Peter Rabbit and many other Potter classics. The book also includes letters and diary excerpts, further exploring the relationship between Potter’s home in the Lake District and her iconic artwork. For those fans of Potter who want to delve further into her aesthetic underpinnings, this intimate look into Potter’s private world is a must-have.The richly illustrated At Home with Beatrix Potter will delight the many admirers of the artist and writer of children's books. Her beloved characters--Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck, and their whimsical friends--were inspired by the English countryside, which she grew to love during summer vacations as a girl. In 1905, at the age of 40, Potter bought Hill Top Farm overlooking Esthwaite Water in the Lake District, a region of hills and lakes famous for its glorious landscapes. She continued to buy property in the area with her royalties, and by the time she died 37 years later, she had amassed over 4,000 acres. She fought vigorously to preserve the beauty of the Lake District and its rural ways, leaving her estate to the National Trust, Britain's leading conservation agency. This book, written by an official of the Trust, is a tribute to the jewel of the estate, 17th-century Hill Top Farm. Potter restored and furnished it as a showcase of English country ways, though she actually lived in a large cottage nearby. Her substantial collection of Lake District antiques reflected the influential Arts & Crafts movement, which emphasized the integrity of handmade objects in a period of increasing mechanization. The book takes us on a tour of the farm, alternating the artist's original photographs and watercolors with photographs of the building and countryside as they look today. Several two-page spreads of the garden in early summer and the Lake District in late autumn are especially beautiful. Unpretentious, solid, charming, understated: At Home with Beatrix Potter embodies the rustic virtues that Beatrix loved. --John Stevenson Read more
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