The Language of Flowers to open at the Beatrix Potter Gallery in Hawkshead

Opening on March 27 at The Beatrix Potter Gallery, Hawkshead, The Language of Flowers explores the celebrated author’s relationship with flowers and invites visitors to look beyond her beloved characters, to see the colourful and realistic flowers around them, showing her talent as both an artist and scientist.

Bringing together her books, sketches, watercolours and decorative items, the exhibition looks at flowers as both medicine and food, and the significance of Potter’s flower-filled Hill Top garden in her world-famous books.

The exhibition traces her love of flowers throughout her life, from her early botanical studies and lessons in flower painting, to her flower press from Hill Top showing her keen interest in gardening.

Illustrations from The Tale of Samuel Whiskers and The Tale of Two Bad Mice highlight the inspiration she took from cultivated flowers, particularly geraniums.

Floral ceramics from her childhood home are also on display following recent conservation work funded by the Royal Oak Foundation.

While watercolour illustrations from The Tale of Benjamin Bunny show Mrs Rabbit with her burrow filled with dried flowers and illustrations of Jemima Puddle-duck show her picking herbs in the garden, unaware that thyme and sage are tasty seasonings for duck.

This year, the downstairs space in the gallery has also been transformed to give visitors an overview of Potter’s life, legacy and ‘little books’ and her journey from artist and illustrator to farmer and conservationist.

A specially commissioned map, created by Kendal based illustrator Evelyn Sinclair, gives a sense of the scale of the land she left to the National Trust. Visitors will also be able to see Potter’s teenage journals, written in her secret code, and the key to Hill Top, a hugely symbolic item representing the independence she gained with its purchase.

The exhibition has been created by the new curator for National Trust properties Hill Top and Beatrix Potter Gallery, Dr Alice Sage.

A historian and curator of childhood, with expertise in early 20th-century art and illustration.

“The Language of Flowers brings together Beatrix Potter’s talents as an artist and a scientist and highlights her love for gardens and nature,” she said.

“Through the exhibition we want to encourage visitors to look beyond the characters in Beatrix’s illustrations to see the colourful and accurate flowers around them, demonstrating Beatrix’s skill as an accomplished botanical artist with a knowledge and passion for flowers. It’s a pleasure to curate this exhibition in such a quirky space and start to get know the treasures of this incredible collection.”

The Language of Flowers exhibition will run at the Beatrix Potter Gallery until October 30.

The gallery is open Sunday to Thursday. Pre-booking is recommended, but not required. Tickets are on sale from March 17. Entry is free for National Trust members.