Beschreibung:

Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle at her Washtub, ink and pencil on paper, 203 x 152 mm, c.1920, a few pale touches of foxing, else fine. Matted and framed. An alternative outline drawing for Peter Rabbit's Painting Book (1911), based on the title-page vignette of The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle (1905). A combination of Potter's pet hedgehog and a Scottish washerwoman she knew, the animals' washerwoman is one of the most enduring and endearing of the author-artist's many characters. "Mrs. Tiggy as a model is comical," she informed her publisher; "so long as she can go to sleep on my knee she is delighted, but if she is propped up on end for half an hour, she first begins to yawn pathetically, and then she does bite! Nevertheless, she is a dear person; just like a very fat rather stupid little dog."