Draw Me A Picture
We all know what Sherlock Holmes looks like, and we have
our favorite images of him. But when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sold A Study in
Scarlet for Beeton’s Christmas Annual (sold in 1886 but not published
until 1887), the detective existed just
in words (and only a few had read those yet!).
The first artist chosen to draw Holmes would
create an image that would last forever. There were no plays, movies or
television shows to compete with. The sketches created for this first story
would shape the public perception of Sherlock Holmes for as long as he was
remembered. Balderdash! The early drawings of the master sleuth weren’t
particularly good and are forgotten by most today.
However, many of the illustrations that
followed were quite good, and some of them did play a lasting role in how we
view Sherlock Holmes, even today. Let’s take a look at some of the men who
drew him.
False Start – Five Yards
D.H. Friston
was a somewhat popular artist in late eighteen-hundreds England and was chosen
by Ward, Lock & Company as the first man to draw the illustrations for the
first edition of A Study in Scarlet. His four pictures, two of which feature
Holmes, are less than inspiring. One picture shows a good look at Holmes wearing
a long overcoat and sporting sideburns. Unfortunately, if he weren’t holding a
magnifying glass up to the wall, it’s unlikely you would know that it was
Sherlock Holmes. We weren’t off to a running start, but the next drawings
would actually send us backwards.
D.H.
Friston’s first profile of Sherlock Holmes in Beeton’s Christmas Annual,
1887.
The following year in 1888,
Ward, Lock & Co. re-issued
the story, this time as a stand-alone paperback. Conan
Doyle’s own father,
Charles Altamont Doyle, provided six drawings. The picture of Holmes, Watson and
Lestrade standing over the body of Enoch Drebber is perhaps the worst Holmes
drawing ever (which one is Holmes?). Another
picture shows Holmes sitting behind his desk and issuing instructions to the
Baker Street Irregulars. Watson sits to the side, looking a bit strange. The
senior Doyle would never again illustrate any of his son’s stories.
Charles
Altamont Doyle, father of Holmes’ creator, shows the discovery of Enoch
Drebber’s corpse in the 1888 Ward, Lock & Company re-issue of A Study
in Scarlet.
Another
Doyle photo from the 1888 Ward, Lock & Company reissue, showing Holmes
addressing his Baker Street Irregulars.
In 1891, the book was re-issued again, this time with forty
pictures
by George Hutchinson. Eleven of them featured Holmes, including his first
meeting with Watson in the laboratory of St. Bart’s. It is believed that this
is the only depiction of the first meeting between the two famous men from the
original drawings of the Canon. Hutchinson is not remembered as one of the
better Holmes illustrators. However, I think it is fair to say that he was the
best of the artists who provided drawings for A Study in Scarlet. His Holmes,
certainly not a classic, is actually recognizable as the master sleuth, which is
more than can be said about Friston and Doyle’s works. I don’t think
they’re too bad!
George
Hutchinson’s depiction of Holmes’ and Watson’s famous meeting (1891 A
Study in Scarlet, Ward, Lock & Beeton)
The
Sign of Four was serialized in Windsor Magazine in 1895, with seven pictures by
James Greig. His cartoon-like cover drawing is one of my favorite Holmes
pictures (see chapter 11). The other drawing shown here, from the interior of
the issue, features the lean profile that characterizes Sherlock Holmes.
Greig’s drawings continued the improvement over the first two editions.
Holmes
and Watson apprehend a villain in this James Greig drawing (Windsor Magazine,
1895)
Doyle had published his second Holmes novel, A
Study in Scarlet, early in 1890. The English
version was not illustrated, but there was a
drawing done by Charles Kerr. The scene is set: Thaddeus Sholto lies slumped
over in his chair, dead. Holmes and Watson are in the cramped attic of
Pondicherry Lodge, looking at a piece of paper. Watson has an expression of
surprise, or perhaps excitement, on his face. But there is one feature of the
picture that we are drawn to: Sherlock Holmes’ huge schnozz! This is the
largest Holmes nose drawn for any of the sixty stories. You can’t tell if he
has the barest wisp of a moustache, or whether that’s
the shadow from his prodigious nose. This cover does not rate very high on the
listing of Holmes illustrations.
Charles
Kerr’s large-nosed drawing from The Sign of Four (Spencer Blackett, 1890)
It’s
Elementary, Watson
Of Holmes’ appearance, Doyle himself said "He had, as I
imagined him, a thin, razorlike face, with a great hawks-bill of a nose, and two
small eyes set close together on either side of it. Such was my
conception."
A Fruitful Mistake
So far, Arthur Conan Doyle had written two Sherlock Holmes
novels and met with limited success. The future looked bleak for the not-yet
great detective. It was quite possible that Sherlock Holmes was about to die a
quick and inglorious death. Not so fast my friend! As mentioned in Chapter 26,
Editor Greenhough Smith of The Strand,
and Doyle agreed that the author would write a series of short stories for the
illustrated monthly. Though chosen by mistake, English portrait artist Sidney
Paget would play a very important role in determining our image of Sherlock
Holmes.
As the illustrator for all twelve stories in The
Adventures, Paget brought a consistency to the portrayal of Holmes. Like any
artist making a series of drawings over time, the Holmes of Sidney Paget changed
from story to story. But they were similar, and this was an important step
forward in the evolution of the image. William Gillette’s famous stage play
was still almost a decade away. Fans of Holmes had only the drawings in the
stories to base their pictures of him on.
Sidney Paget, Sherlock Holmes' most
prolific illustrator.
Because the stories were so hugely popular in The
Strand (as opposed to the two earlier novels), it was Paget's image of Holmes
that people were seeing. A strange set of circumstances and happenings resulted
in Sidney Paget’s name enduring for over a century. One wonders if the result
would have been the same had his younger brother Walter actually landed the
job that he was commissioned for?
How important is an artist, you may ask? I can point out
one very clear example that shows the dramatic impact a drawing can have on us.
It was Sidney Paget who gave Holmes the deerstalker. The earlier drawings had
Holmes bare-headed or with a derby. In The
Boscombe Valley My
stery, he gives
Holmes a deerstalker. A few stories later, in The
Silver Blaze, a famous railway picture shows Holmes in deerstalker and cape,
with Watson wearing his bowler. Doyle did not have Holmes in a deerstalker.
Paget sometimes wore one and decided to use it for some of his drawings. We are
thankful that he did. Think of Sherlock Holmes: you put a deerstalker on his
head, didn’t you? That’s due entirely to Sidney Paget.
Sidney
Paget’s famous railway scene with Holmes and Watson, from The Silver Blaze
(The Strand, 1892)
It’s Elementary, Watson
Sidney Paget also provided the drawings for other mystery
authors who were published in 'The Strand', as well as non-Holmes stories
by Doyle.
Sidney Paget drew this picture
for Grant Allen’s The
Great Ruby Robbery (The Strand, 1892)
Sidney Paget did 356 drawings for 37 short stories and one novel (The Hound of the Baskervilles). He also added a portrait of Holmes
that never appeared with a story, but may be the best-known drawing of him.
Unfortunately, he died in 1908 and no other British artist would approach his
mastery as "the" Holmes illustrator. Paget captured gas-lit London like no
other Holmes artist. The popular Jeremy Brett television series studied his
drawings and copied some of them almost exactly. Fifties television Holmes Alan
Wheatley said "I tried to take the make-up and so on from the early drawings
by Sidney Paget." Sidney Paget’s influence on the enduring image of Sherlock
Holmes can not be underestimated.
O
Brother, Which Art Thou?
Walter Paget was a successful artist, with editions of
Robert Louis Stevenson’s Robin Crusoe and Treasure Island among his credits. But Strand editor George Newnes mistakenly commissioned Walter’s older
brother, Sidney, to draw for Doyle’s stories. It turned out to be one of the
best mistakes in the history of literature.
One wonders how the brothers discussed this mistake, and if
there was ever any thought of Walter taking over the assignment. Sidney
drew for the first six stories of The
Adventures. They were so successful that Newnes ordered six more from Doyle,
and he retained Paget as his illustrator. Interestingly enough, Walter would
play two roles in the history of Sherlock Holmes in pictures.
In
1913, after his brother had died, Walter
himself would get the assignment originally intended for him and would provide
the drawings for The Dying Detective.
Hey, I think Walter drew some pretty good pictures.
And, Sidney often used his sibling as a model
for his own drawings. His younger brother was generally reckoned to have
handsome features, and it is his visage that Sidney copied for Mister Holmes.
Sir Arthur actually thought that the Paget brothers combined to make Sherlock
Holmes too handsome. Walter both modeled for and drew Sherlock Holmes, but it is
his younger brother Sidney whom we remember.
Sidney Paget’s younger brother Walter drew this picture
for The Dying Detective (The Strand, 1913)
Too
Good Looking
Let’s take a look at Doyle’s description of his
creation. The following is the first real description of Holmes, given to us by
the inestimable Dr. Watson in A Study in
Scarlet:
‘His
very person and appearance were such as to strike the attention of the most
casual observer. In height he was rather over six feet, and so excessively lean
that he seemed to be considerably taller. His eyes were sharp and piercing…and
his thin hawk-line nose gave his whole expression an air of smartness and
decision. His chin, too, had the prominence and squareness which mark the man of
decision.’
“Dashing” is not exactly a word that jumps
to mind, eh? To Doyle, Sherlock Holmes was not a handsome man. He was tall, very
skinny, with sharp eyes, a beaky nose and a square chin. That doesn’t sound
like a matinee idol to me. Holmes was a rather unhandsome, extremely intelligent
man.
Sherlock
Says
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said
"The handsome Walter (Paget)
took the place of the more powerful, but uglier Sherlock; and perhaps from the
point of view of my lady readers, it is as well."
Sidney Paget changed this image, making Holmes a more
attractive figure. By using his younger brother Walter, he was improving
Holmes’ picture while paying a compliment to Walter, perhaps in atonement for getting the job meant for
him.
In 1889, the indisputably handsome William Gillette opened
his play, Sherlock Holmes. Gillette
would play the great detective on stage over 1,300 times, make a silent film and
do the first Holmes radio broadcast. As we shall see when discussing Frederic
Dorr Steele, Gillette played a huge role in the image of Sherlock Holmes. But
not everybody could see Gillette live on stage. In England (and to a much lesser
extent and in America, where some of his pictures were reproduced), it was the
drawings of Sidney Paget that defined Sherlock Holmes.
Doyle complained throughout his life that
Paget had made Holmes “too good looking.” I think that fits the meaning of
‘damning with faint praise.’ Sidney Paget did make Holmes more handsome than
Doyle had intended, but it is fair to say that resulted in only good.
William
Gillette, perhaps the most famous Holmes on two continents.
Man of
Steel(e)
In 1893, Doyle, feeling that writing Holmes stories was
holding him back from more important works, did the unthinkable: he killed the
world’s most popular detective. In 1902, he revived Holmes for one adventure
in his most famous story, The Hound of the
Baskervilles. It was illustrated by Sidney Paget. Doyle made it clear this
was an earlier case of Holmes' and that the great detective was in fact, still
dead.
In 1903, the American magazine Collier’s threw a big bushel of money at Doyle and enticed him to
actually revive Holmes. Funny how ‘artistic integrity’ often bows down
before cold, hard cash, eh?
The stories from The
Adventures and The Memoirs had
been illustrated by various artists in America, where they appeared in different
magazines and newspapers. There was no sole source of the stories, like
The Strand. Most of the drawings were rather uninspired. Sometimes, some of
Paget’s were used, although rarely the entire set for each story, so a common
image of Holmes had not really occurred from the drawings. There was no Sidney
Paget in the United States. But there was about to be.
It’s Elementary, Watson
Dorr Steele holds the honor of having been the first living
illustrator to be exhibited at the Library of Congress.
Collier’s selected Frederic Dorr Steele to illustrate The
Return. Sherlockians generally fall in
two camps on who the greatest
illustrator was: Sidney Paget or Frederic Dorr Steele. Dorr Steele’s drawings
are very different from Paget’s. The Englishman’s drawings are characterized
by dark, charcoal-like shading. This was common for black and white pictures of
the time. But Dorr Steele drew ten colored front pieces for The Return that are
possibly the most famous drawings of Sherlock Holmes. They are grand
illustrations, crackling with color and life. One need only see Holmes’ face
to realize that Dorr Steele was strongly influenced by William Gillette. In
fact, it’s difficult to believe that Gillette did not model in person for
them!
Dorr Steele's covers for The Norwood
Builder and The Empty House. (Collier's, 1903)
It’s Elementary, Watson
Of the drawing of Doyle’s stories by Dorr Steele, noted
Sherlockian Vincent Starrett said "No happier association of author and artist
can be imagined."
Dorr Steele would provide drawings for six of the eight
stories in His Last Bow. It had been three and-a-half years since The
Return,
but the pictures were impressive as ever.
The Casebook stories debuted in America between 1921 and
1927. Several illustrators were used, though Dorr Steele contributed thirty-four
pictures in all to The Casebook. There can be no doubt that he was the
definitive American illustrator of Sherlock Holmes, and he contributed greatly
to William Gillette’s enduring success in becoming identified as the master
sleuth. For
me, I believe that his drawing of Holmes, standing alone on the beach in The
Lion’s Mane, is the definitive illustration.
Frederic
Dorr Steele’s haunting drawing from The Lion’s Mane (Liberty,
1926)
It’s Elementary, Watson
Shortly after completing his 1922 film, ‘Sherlock
Holmes,’ star John Barrymore met Frederic Dorr Steele, who told him that he
used to draw pictures of Holmes. Barrymore replied "Why hell, we had all your
old pictures out on the lot. You’re more to blame than (William) Gillette."
Other Illustrators
We’ve discussed the two most
famous illustrators of Sherlock Holmes. But many others provided drawings for
Doyle’s stories during their release and early reissues in both England and
America.
W.H. Hyde was a very popular
artist in America at the time and provided 21 pictures for ten of the American
stories in The Memoirs. They aren’t particularly remarkable, and he is
largely remembered as having been replaced by Frederic Dorr Steele as the
primary American Holmes artist.
Harry Edwards drew for the
American release of The Final Problem. His picture of Holmes leaning
against an outcrop at Reichenbach Falls, waiting on Moriarty, almost became
famous. Had Doyle not revived Holmes, but left him dead, this would have been
the final illustration of Sherlock Holmes! Robert Hoof had the distinction of
providing six drawings for the Louisville Journal’s serialization of Holmes’
American rebirth in The Hound of the Baskervilles.
C.
Harry Edward’s drawing of Holmes awaiting Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls in
The Final Problem (McClure’s, 1893)
Sidney Paget died before the
stories in His Last Bow were published. Seven different artists provided
forty-two pictures. They were a mixed bag, though some were quite good. Arthur
Twiddle’s dark drawings evoked memories of Paget. Joseph Simpson produced a
drawing for The Red Circle that was an amazing likeness of future Holmes
actor, Arthur Wontner. One of H.M. Brock’s drawings for the same story was
used for a popular cigarette card in 1933.
H.M.
Brock’s drawing for the Red Circle became a cigarette card two decades later.
(The Strand, 1911)
J. Frank Wiles' well-known
drawing from The Valley of Fear. (The Strand, 1914)
In 1914, The
Strand serialized The Valley of Fear, with 31 illustrations by J. Frank
Wiles. The color front piece is one of the best known pictures of Holmes.
Unfortunately, the English book edition had only one illustration. Wiles also
illustrated the final three stories in The Casebook. For Shoscombe Old
Place, he
drew three pictures with Holmes wearing his deerstalker. This had not been seen
in the pages of The Strand since Paget in 1803.
For the final drawings in
America (primarily done by Dorr Steele), G. Patrick Nelson contributed seven
pictures for The Problem of Thor Bridge.
New editions of the old stories
continue to be published today. Many include brand new artwork. Among the finest
are some watercolors by Barry Moser.
Barry
Moser’s drawing of Holmes, heavily influenced by William Gillette’s
portrayal. (Morrow Books, 1992)
It’s Elementary, Watson
Arthur Conan Doyle once told
Frederic Dorr Steele who his favorite illustrator was: Cyrus Cuneo. Cuneo drew
for Doyle’s story 'How It Happened', but never illustrated a Sherlock
Holmes adventure.
THE BASICS OF HOLMES ON
THE PRINTED PAGE
It was magazine artists who predominantly shaped the public’s
view of Sherlock Holmes when Doyle was writing the stories, not movies;
Sidney Paget was mistakenly commissioned to illustrate The
Adventures, but he became the most famous illustrator of them all;
Frederic Dorr Steele’s color drawings, influenced by actor
William Gillette, are among the best-known drawings of Sherlock Holmes;
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle felt that the artists, especially Sidney
Paget, made Holmes too handsome!
by Bob Byrne - www.HolmesOnScreen.com