Beatrix Potter drawings sent to V&A for display

Five drawings by Beatrix Potter are travelling from their Lake District home to go on display in London.

The children's author and illustrator was also a keen naturalist and produced hundreds of scientifically-accurate drawings and watercolours of plants, fungi, and archaeological finds.

Many of these are now held at the Armitt Museum in Ambleside.

It has now loaned five to the V&A as part of its Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature exhibition, opening in February.

Three of the drawings are of fungi, which reflect her level of scientific interest as well as her illustrative skills.

She was a keen amateur mycologist, writing a paper which was read out at the Linnean Society - the foremost natural history society in the country - but because she was a woman and therefore could not become a member, it had to be read out on her behalf.

The other two are archaeological drawings of finds from excavations in central London in the 1890s - a friend who was involved would often loan her the objects to draw.

Beatrix Potter settled in the Lake District and in 1913 married William Heelis, with the couple becoming members of the recently-founded Armitt Museum.

In 1946, three years' after her death, a vast amount of her work was donated to the museum, and a rotating selection of it remains on display.

Manager and curator Fay Morrissey said: "We are thrilled to have a group of Beatrix Potter's artworks from the Armitt's archive going on display as part of this national exhibition.

"We hope that many who visit the V&A's exhibition will be inspired to come to the Lake District, to find out more about Beatrix's life, and to gain a sense of the landscape and place to which she became so intrinsically linked."

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