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Sherlock Holmes Artwork & Rarities:
The Museum of London 2014 Exhibition
By Randall Stock, October 18, 2014 (revised May 10, 2015)
The largest exhibition ever held of original Sidney Paget drawings opened at the Museum of London on October 17, 2014. In addition to drawings from the Holmes stories, it includes a portrait of Conan Doyle, Paget artifacts, and a large selection of nineteenth-century art showing the London of Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes Drawings by Sidney Paget (by date)
Sherlock Holmes became a huge success after Conan Doyle shifted to writing short stories and Sidney Paget began illustrating them. Paget's Holmes was more handsome than the author's early conception, and Paget was responsible for introducing the deerstalker hat as part of the Holmes image.
Sidney Paget created more than 350 drawings for the Holmes stories. As of October 2014, only 27 of these Holmes drawings are known to still exist, plus 3 others that were not published with a Holmes story. For more details, see the Census of Sidney Paget Original Drawings and Artwork.
The Museum of London is hosting the largest exhibition ever held of original Paget drawings. It includes eight of his thirty extant Holmes drawings, with thumbnail images shown below. The links provide additional details and history for each drawing.
"The Stockbroker's Clerk" (March 1893)
"Nothing could be better," said Holmes
Lent by a private collector.
"The Final Problem" (December 1893)
Lent by a private collector.
"The Norwood Builder" (November 1903)
A wild-eyed and frantic young man burst into the room
Lent by Dr. Constantine Rossakis.
"The Three Students" (June 1904)
With his neck craned, he looked into the room
Lent by Dr. Constantine Rossakis.
"The Missing Three-Quarter" (August 1904)
He never looked up until Holmes's hand was on his shoulder
Lent by a private collector.
"The Second Stain" (December 1904)
It hinged back like the lid of a box
Lent by a private collector.
Not published with a Holmes story
Portrait of Sherlock Holmes (B)
Lent by Dr. Constantine Rossakis.
Not published with a Holmes story
Portrait of Sherlock Holmes (C)
Lent by the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection-Lancelyn Green Bequest, Portsmouth.
Conan Doyle Portrait by Sidney Paget
While best known as an illustrator of stories, Sidney Paget also painted portraits and landscapes, and exhibited at the Royal Academy. See the Sidney Paget Painting checklist for more details.
Conan Doyle paid Paget £52 in October 1897 to paint his portrait. The painting stayed in the author's family for many years, and by the 1960s his son Adrian brought it to the Château de Lucens in Switzerland. After Adrian's death in 1970, it was held by the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Foundation, and in 2001 put on display at the Sherlock Holmes Museum of Lucens.
Both the frame and portrait suffered some damage over the years, and as part of this exhibition, the Museum of London funded extensive conservation work on it. The portrait has not previously been on public display in the UK. For more about the painting, see the Conan Doyle portrait entry on the Paget Painting checklist.
Conservators with newly conserved ACD portrait by Sidney Paget
Lent by the Musée Sherlock Holmes de Lucens (Switzerland)
Photo © Matt Alexander, PA Wire
Other Artwork Highlights in the Museum of London Exhibition
The Mazarin Stone, drawing by Frederic Dorr Steele
Holmes disguised as an old woman.
Lent by Dr. Constantine Rossakis.
Cover Art for The Strand Magazine, by George Charles Haité (1855–1924)
Haité drew the original street scene of the Strand used on the cover of the magazine.
Held by the Museum of London.
The London of Sherlock Holmes
This part of the exhibition provides many different views of London through paintings, photographs, maps and other material that showcase the city overall and key locations from the Holmes adventures. This material from the late nineteenth century offers Sherlockians a richer and broader perspective on London and the story settings. Some highlights include:
Oil paintings by Claude Monet, Frederick Winkfield, Spencer Gore, John O'Connor, John Anderson, and P. Stahl.
Watercolor paintings by J.M.W. Turner, John Crowther and Ernest Dudley Heath.
Prints by James McNeill Whistler and Joseph Pennell.
Photographs by the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company Ltd (c.1880), George Washington Wilson (c.1890), Francis Frith (c.1890) and photogravures by American photographer, Alvin Langdon Coburn (1909).
Sidney Paget Artifacts
The Museum of London is displaying a number of artifacts associated with Sidney Paget, the illustrator who established the iconic depiction of Sherlock Holmes. Some of these artifacts are shown below.
Carte de Visite of Sidney Paget
Lent by the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection-Lancelyn Green Bequest, Portsmouth.
Photo © Portsmouth Museum Service.
Silver Cigarette Case, presented to Sidney Paget by Conan Doyle
Conan Doyle clearly recognized Paget's contribution to the success of the Holmes stories. The author asked for Paget to illustrate other stories, commissioned him to paint his portrait, and gave Paget a silver cigarette case as a wedding gift on 1 June 1893. He had the 3.5x2.5 inch case inscribed as "From Sherlock Holmes, 1893."
Paget's diary entry for that wedding day, according to his daughter Winifred, said he was "most delighted at breakfast time to find a beautiful silver cigarette case from 'Sherlock Holmes' had come as a present." It was one of the artist's treasured possessions, shown at the 1951 Festival of Britain (item 42), and held in the family until going to auction in 1980. The Sotheby's catalogue described it as the "only known object or book with an inscription by Sherlock Holmes."
Silver Cigarette Case Given to Sidney Paget, 1893
Lent by the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection-Lancelyn Green Bequest, Portsmouth.
Photo © Portsmouth Museum Service.
Furniture
Two chairs formerly owned by Sidney Paget, and probably used as models for items in Paget's drawings.
Manuscripts and First Editions
For details and photos of Holmes manuscripts and rare publications, see the Museum of London Exhibition of Holmes Manuscripts page.
Exhibition Summary & Catalogue
The Museum of London:
Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Never Lived and Will Never Die
Sherlock Holmes Exhibition website
17 October 2014 – 12 April 2015
Most of the Paget material appears in "Genesis of Sherlock Holmes" section of the exhibition, while most of the general art appears in the "London of Sherlock Holmes" section. For more details, see my longer exhibition information section.
A catalogue was published after the exhibition closed in April 2015. It includes color photos of all eight Paget drawings shown above. Six of these photos are quite large, and the other two (the Holmes portraits) are medium-sized but still larger than the above images. There are also large color photos of the Steele drawing for "The Mazarin Stone," Paget's framed painting of Sir Arthur, and the original cover art for The Strand Magazine. See my review of the exhibition catalogue for more details.
Three original Paget Holmes drawings are reproduced in the exhibition's companion book. Those include the ones shown above from The Final Problem and The Second Stain, plus a Hound of the Baskervilles drawing held by Occidental College.
Acknowledgements
My congratulations and thanks to Alex Werner and Andrew Scott at the Museum of London for putting on this great exhibition and providing details about it. Also thanks to Costa Rossakis and those who wish to remain anonymous for their help and photos for this page.
Related Pages
Holmes manuscripts at the Museum of London
Census of original Sherlock Holmes Manuscripts
Census of original Sidney Paget Drawings
Other Conan Doyle rarities like Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887.
Lists of each year's best Sherlock Holmes books & DVDs, the most famous Sherlock Holmes quotes, and more Top 10 Lists.
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Randall Stock. All Rights Reserved.