Sidney Paget
Sidney Paget | |
---|---|
Born | Sidney Edward Paget 4 October 1860 Clerkenwell, London, England |
Died | 28 January 1908 | (aged 47)
Notable work | The Strand Magazine illustrations |
Spouse |
Edith Hounsfield (m. 1893) |
Children | 6 |
Sidney Edward Paget (/ˈpædʒɪt/;[1] 4 October 1860 – 28 January 1908) was a British artist of the Victorian era, best known for his illustrations that accompanied Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories in The Strand Magazine.
Life
Sidney Paget was the fifth of nine children born to Robert Paget, the vestry clerk of
Paget's drawings appeared in the
On 1 June 1893, Sidney Paget married Edith Hounsfield (born 1865), daughter of William Hounsfield, a farmer.[2] They had four daughters and two sons together: Leslie Robert (1894); Winifred (1896); Edith Muriel (1897); Evelyn Mereoah (1899); Beryl May (1902) and John L. Paget.
Sidney Paget died in Margate on 28 January 1908, at age 47, after suffering from a painful chest complaint for the last few years of his life. According to his death certificate, the cause of death was "Mediastinal tumour, 3 years, exhaustion". Mediastinal tumours are growths that form in the central chest; as they grow, they increasingly constrict the lungs. The condition is rare, with unknown causes, and in the early twentieth century led to a painful and certain death.
Paget was buried in East Finchley Cemetery. Two brothers, H.M. (Henry Marriott) Paget (1856–1936) and Wal (Walter Stanley) Paget (1863–1935) were also successful portraitists and illustrators.[2]
The Strand illustrations
Paget is best remembered as the creator of the popular image of Sherlock Holmes from the original publication of Conan Doyle's stories in The Strand Magazine. He was originally hired to illustrate The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a series of twelve short stories that ran from July 1891 through June 1892.
In 1893, Paget illustrated The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, published in The Strand as further episodes of the Adventures. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle revived the Sherlock Holmes series with The Hound of the Baskervilles, serialised in The Strand in 1901–02, he specifically requested that Paget be the illustrator. Paget went on to illustrate another short story series, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, in 1903–04. In all, he illustrated one Holmes novel and 37 Holmes short stories. His illustrations have influenced interpretations of the detective in fiction, film and drama.
The Strand became one of Great Britain's most famous fiction magazines, with the Holmes series its most popular feature. As Holmes' popularity grew, Paget's illustrations became larger and more elaborate. Beginning with "
Paget was the first to give Holmes his
Altogether, Paget did some 356 published drawings for the Sherlock Holmes series. His depictions of Holmes became iconic and other illustrators found themselves compelled to imitate his style in their own depictions of Holmes.
A complete set of The Strand issues featuring the illustrated Sherlock Holmes tales is one of the rarest and most expensive collector's items in publishing history. Paget's original 6.75 x 10.5-inch drawing of "Holmes and Moriarty in Mortal Combat at the Edge of the Reichenbach Falls" was sold by Sotheby's in New York on 16 November 2004 for $220,800.
Legend holds that the publishers of The Strand hired Paget accidentally when he mistakenly responded to a letter of commission intended for his younger brother Walter,
Notes and references
- ISBN 0-460-03029-9.
- ^ a b c Cooke, Catherine (2007). "Portraits by the friend of Sherlock Holmes discovered in the City of Westminster" (PDF). City of Westminster.
- ISBN 978-0-8131-3671-4.
- ^ Matetsky, Ira Brad (Summer 2019). "Another Sherlockian Myth Debunked: Time to Turn the Page(t)?". The Baker Street Journal. 69 (2): 6–10.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 1912
External links
- Works by Sidney Paget at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Sidney Paget at Internet Archive
- Sidney Paget at Library of Congress, with 10 library catalogue records