Sidney Paget illustrator

This is a Sidney Paget illustration from The Strand Magazine.

Sidney Paget was the first illustrator of the Holmes stories, who created an image of Sherlock Holmes that we still recognise today. This image influenced thousands of film and television adaptions, including BBC’s Sherlock. He was inadvertently hired to illustrate The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, twelve short stories that ran from July 1891 through December 1892, when The Strand's publishers accidentally sent him the letter of commission rather than to his younger brother, Walter Paget.

Despite the commonly held belief that Paget based Holmes' appearance on that of Walter, his brother Henry Marriott (H.M.) Paget denied this was the case. "The assertion that the artist's brother Walter, or any other person, served as model for the portrait of Sherlock Holmes is incorrect." He continued to illustrate Sherlock Holmes in future Strand publications at Conan Doyle's request.