Lately, I have been thinking about anthropomorphized animals, so I flipped through what my art history professor would call a coffee table book on Beatrix Potter.
In Beatrix Potter. At Home in the Lake District, the author, Susan Denyer, juxtaposes Potter’s home in the Lake District in Northern England, with her art. By doing so, it becomes clear that Denyer draws on the importance of the backdrops in Potter’s illustrations, because parts of her home were integrated into her animal stories. Indeed, Potter, who was not only an accomplished illustrator, but also a very talented painter with an incredible eye for detail, produced various sketches of places in and around her house.
I think it was this preciseness, this holistic approach Potter seemed to have taken when sketching that makes her book illustrations so…high in quality, so…credible. Having never been to the Lake District, I have complete faith in Potter’s renderings of this area and, especially of her house; nothing looks like it has been made up. That Potter chose to use a dollhouse as the model for The Tale of Two Bad Mice (77), does not taint this idea of realness, since the dollhouse existed.
What fascinates me most about her illustrations is that all the animals look so integrated in their respective surroundings that, if one would imagine people in their places, the scenes would still make perfect sense. This, I think, is due to the instance that Potter’s animals lead human lives: they knit, hold umbrellas when promenading, comb their hair, erm, fur. But most importantly, they appear to lead human lives in a “genuine” human environment.
Creating interesting characters is one thing, but integrating them in any particular surrounding can be very challenging because the character needs to be in proportion with the setting. (Provided that the illustrator wants this). Thus, Potter’s approach to depict familiar settings (house, garden, etc) might make this process easier and more effective.