Peter Rabbit's Painting Book
Peter Rabbit's Painting Book is a children's book written and illustrated by BeatrIX Potter and first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in October 1911. Potter intended to follow The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse (1910) with a story AbOUT a pig but work on her Hill Top Farm and the demands of her aging parents restricted her time. She put the pig story aside and spent the winter of 1910â1911 composing The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes and supervising the production of Peter Rabbit's Painting Book.
The book displays pairs of outlined drawings of characters from Potter's previous books with a short text under each pair. At the beginning of the book, instructions are given about the five colours needed to complete the pictures and instructions about mixing Antwerp blue and burnt sienna to make dark brown. The child artist is advised not to put the paint brush into his mouth or he will fall ill like Peter. The book was widely popular and hugely successful.
Warne published single sheets of the drawings separately from the book at Potter's suggestion and sold them in sets of twelve at 4d. A shortened edition of the book was published in 1916 and unused illustrations were incorporated into Tom Kitten's Painting Book of 1917. Jemima Puddle-Duck's Painting Book would be Potter's third and final painting book in 1925.
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