My Chocolate Bunny

in honor of Beatrix Potter

pastel by Vicki Smith

Hello,

Getting in the mood for spring requires no effort. The daffodils coming up in our yard and a visit to the Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature exhibit at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City are visual reminders of what will come. Thursday was a beautiful day to be out and about in the city and I was amused while waiting for my friend to arrive by how many other women of a similar age were milling about also waiting for a female companion. Potter’s paintings and illustrations, whether of animals or scenery, are rendered in sensitive line and a delicate application of watercolor that inspires the viewer to go outside and stomp around the woods or dig in the garden. Moving through the years we can watch how Potter developed her distinctive illustration style. This particular exhibit does not rely on framed paintings alone but offers much greater context into Beatrix Potter’s life. We see a photo of a dollhouse that inspired The Tale of Two Mice, her actual wooden soled clogs and her walking stick with its built-in magnifying glass for observing flora and fauna, photographs of Potter’s family and their country homes, many taken by her father, and the drawing box she used to paint outdoors as a teen.

Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) was born into affluence spending her childhood winters in London and her summers in Scotland and the English Lake District. She and her brother Bertram enjoyed exploring and observing nature during summers in the bucolic countryside where they maintained a wide assortment of pets that she recorded charming details about. She describes one rabbit as partial to buttered toast and running at the sound of the bell for tea. Her first book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, was written and illustrated without thought of publishing but grew organically from picture letters sent to the children of her former governess in the 1890s. When she showed the book to publishers, she was rejected and wound up self-publishing, selling out of all the copies she had printed. After demonstrating how popular her book could be she was accepted in 1902 by a publisher that had originally rejected her. More books were to follow as well as licensed merchandise such as a board game and greeting cards, all long before Disney and Mickey Mouse.

Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature / The Morgan Library and Museum

Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature / The Morgan Library and Museum / Photo of the English Lake District

Potter also became an accomplished scientific illustrator as well as a scientist in her own right. By 1896 she had developed her theory of how fungi spores reproduced and wrote a paper on it that was presented to a prestigious society that studied natural history. Since women could not attend Society meetings her findings were presented by a mycologist from the Royal Botanic Garden. Sadly, her paper has since been lost.

The exhibit is rich in examples of folded materials such as this accordion book as well as cards, flap books hiding secret illustrations, and handwritten letters interspersed with drawings. In 1905 Beatrix Potter purchased Hill Top Farm. With her husband William Heelis, she farmed the land and raised sheep for the next several decades, ultimately donating her 4,000 acres to the U.K. National Trust so that its beauty could be preserved. Accomplished in so many areas, her diminutive books continue to delight adults as well as children evidenced by the rapt attention paid to her work by visitors at the exhibit.

Molded Chocolate Rabbit

I have an antique metal mold for making a chocolate rabbit. It’s seven inches tall and I had only once previously tried using it, but had trouble dislodging the chocolate from the mold. This time I lightly coated the mold with a cooking oil from a spray bottle. The two sides of the mold are held together with stiff clips that are hard to put on and remove. I replaced them with modern metal binder clips. I tempered 16 ounces of Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate in a double boiler. My husband held the mold as I poured the chocolate in. Periodically we would stop and tap the mold on the counter to ensure it was settling into all the nooks and crannies. Once filled with chocolate, we propped the rabbit upside down on the kitchen counter to set and cool. The rabbit was then refrigerated for a couple of hours. The clips were removed and with a bit of nudging with a butter knife, it was lifted from the mold. As you can see, it’s not perfect, but I was still quite pleased.

Happy Spring!

Thanks for visiting.

Vicki