Page "Beatrix Potter" Paragraph 17

As a way to earn a bit of money in the 1890s, Beatrix and her brother began to print Christmas cards of their own design, as well as cards for special occasions.

Mice and rabbits were the most frequent subject of her fantasy paintings.

In 1890 the firm of Hildesheimer and Faulkner bought several of her drawings of her rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, to illustrate verses by Frederic Weatherly titled A Happy Pair.

In 1893 the same printer brought several more drawings for Weatherly ’ s Our Dear Relations, another book of rhymes, and the following year Potter successfully sold a series of frog illustrations and verses for Changing Pictures, a popular annual offered by the art publisher Ernest Nister.

Potter was pleased by this success and determined to publish her own illustrated stories.