Frontispiece. The Tailor Mouse 1902

Beatrix Potter created this watercolor titled "Frontispiece. The Tailor Mouse", which was intended as a frontispiece for her beloved children’s book "The Tailor of Gloucester". Potter, a woman who lived and worked in a world dominated by men, created an alternative world in her books, one where gender roles were not fixed. Her characters often defy traditional gender stereotypes. In this illustration the tailor mouse—perched on a spool of thread, spectacles perched on his nose, reading the paper— challenges our expectations. The tools of needlework, scissors and thimble, typically associated with domesticity and women's work, are here re-appropriated. Potter invites us to see these tools in a new light, imbued with skill, craft, and perhaps even a quiet form of rebellion.