In her early years, Beatrix was drawn to mushrooms (fungi) from fairy stories she was told in the nursery from nannies and governesses. She imagined creatures dancing round toad stools and fairy rings at the bottom of gardens or in woodland. As she grew older and was given opportunities to visit museums, gardens, countryside and coasts, she realised there was a lot more to these unusual forms. There were so many different shapes, colours and textures.

In 1882, Beatrix and her family stayed in the Lake District for the first time – at Wray Castle. They would come back most years thereafter and this is when Beatrix’s love for the landscape and environment began to flourish.

Soon, she was not just painting fungi for their colour or shape, but to also understand their scientific form, growth and reproduction. From the late 1880s throughout the 1890s, Beatrix painted hundreds of fungi artworks. Many show a variety of ways she must have been studying them, including dissecting, recording insitu and using a microscope. The majority of these artworks are in The Armitt’s collection, which were bequeathed in 1943 on her death.

But how did she create such accurate, scientific representations on paper? It is likely that she had great help from the amateur naturalist, Charles Macintosh, as well as support from family – Sir Henry Roscoe – as well as some access to resources within the mycological community. She would also have used a microscope. Whilst we do not know exactly what type, it must have been one that could produce at least x 600 magnification because some of her drawings record such notes.

With this in mind, our display for 2024 turns to putting Beatrix and her work further “under the microscope”.

See our Beatrix Potter collection page for more information.