COVE

Sidney Paget illustrated this image entitled "he is a professional beggar" for Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Man with the Twisted Lip", a short story which was first published in the Strand Magazine in 1891. This is one of 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories, and is the sixth of twelve stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. This image is located off to the side of the page with text surrounding it. It is the fifth if ten black and white watercolour images that have been photographically reproduced in this short story. The illustration depicts a man sitting on the ground against the wall, holding out his cap, asking for money. The text surrounding him is a description of who we, as readers, are meant to see him as. He is described as “the sinister cripple” (138),  a term often used in a derogatory way to describe disabled people. With this decription, though, Paget illustrated him as someone who looks like any other able-bodied person. It is important to note that we are supposed to view this character as someone suspicious. He is heavily involved in the drug community and he is said to be the last person to see the man Sherlock is searching for (140). Paget also illustrated him at eye level to the viewer. Even though Holmes describes him using lower-standard words, he is not illustrated from a birds-eye perspective, which would further amplify the status of Holmes to Boone. Instead, to illustrate suspicion, Paget heavily used shadows to, as it seems, surround this man, almost like an orb of dark encircling just him.

Primary Sources:

https://archive.org/details/adventuresofsher001892doyl/page/138/mode/2up?q=Twisted+lip

http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/pagets/introduction.html

http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/pagets/71.html