Hill
Top on a Winter Night
circa late 1890s (?)
Just as with words in
her diaries, Mrs Potter portrays the same degree of love for her home with
watercolour. Here, light escapes from Hill Top's open entrance and from the
windows beside and above it, casting an image of comfort and solitude in the
midst of looming bushes and branches, each spidery and stricken from the bite
of northern temperatures. The sloped drive, padded down with a hint of cart
wheels, draws the eye up and out of the cold towards the bay of human (or
animal, for that matter) activity, making us wonder - in terms of Mrs Potter's
imagination - what could be happening behind those walls.
The small size of
this piece (about that of a regular hand palm) emphasises her skill at
rendering what seem like fine details out of carefully thought-out blobs and
blotches of (or lack of) colour. Knit together on such a small scale they form
an intimate scene, but with closer inspection these details become, ironically,
out of focus. This is the magic that lies behind many of Mrs Potter's stories:
addressing the minds of children, she weaves together common details of moral with
bright interpretations of animal life, creating on the whole an imaginative
tale that is in fact very realistic. Read too closely and the tale loses
perspective - perhaps it is even called too flowery or frilly - but when seen
from a relaxed distance, as with this illustration, its true message is seen at
its best.
