The Mice Hear Simpkin Outside 1902

Beatrix Potter made this drawing of mice with paint and ink; a little stage set that comes alive on the page. Look at how the mice huddle, holding their teeny candles, and consider their fears. I imagine Potter, as a painter, delighting in how those brown-grey bodies mass together in a single clump of fur, each with unique ears. There's one particularly anxious mouse, clutching a bit of pink fabric, as if sartorial elegance could ward off danger. The artist seems to empathize with the tiny creatures in their imagined world. What's Simpkin doing outside? The soft, washy paint and delicate lines give the scene an innocent, childlike quality. But there's also something dark lurking under the floorboards, isn't there? Potter’s work exists in an art historical conversation with illustrators like Edward Lear and Aubrey Beardsley, who weren’t afraid to confront the absurd and the scary. It's a reminder that all artists, no matter their medium, are in dialogue with one another, inspired by a range of ideas, aesthetics and images.