Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Paget, Sidney Edward
PAGET, SIDNEY EDWARD (1860–1908), painter and illustrator, born on 4 Oct. 1860 at 60 Pentonville Road, London, N., was fourth son of Robert Paget, vestry clerk from 1856 to 1892 of Clerkenwell, by his wife Martha Clarke. At the Cowper Street school, London, Paget received his early education, and passing thence to Heatherley's school of art, entered the Royal Academy schools in 1881, where he was preceded by his brothers, Henry Marriott and Walter Stanley, both well-known artists and illustrators. At the Academy schools, among other prizes, he won in the Armitage competition second place in 1885, and first place and medal in 1886 for his 'Balaam blessing the Children of Israel.' Between 1879 and 1905 Paget contributed to the Royal Academy exhibitions eighteen miscellaneous paintings, of which nine were portraits. The best-known of his pictures, 'Lancelot and Elaine,' exhibited in 1891, was presented to the Bristol Art Gallery by Lord Winterstoke. In 1901 Paget exhibited a whole-length portrait of the donor, then Sir William Henry Wills, which is now at Mill Hill school, while a study is in the possession of Miss J. Stancomb-Wills. Among other portraits painted by him were Dr. Weymouth (R.A. 1887), headmaster of Mill Hill School, a three-quarter length in scarlet robes as D.Litt.; his father, and brother, Robert Ernest (his father's successor as vestry clerk), both in the town hall, Finsbury; and Sir John Aird, as mayor, in Paddington town hall.
It was as an illustrator that Paget won a wide reputation. His vigorous work as a black-and-white artist became well known not only in the United Kingdom but also in America and the colonies, by his drawings for the 'Pictorial World' (1882), the 'Sphere,' and for many of Cassell's publications. He also drew occasionally for the 'Graphic,' 'Illustrated London News,' and the 'Pall Mall Magazine.' Paget's spirited illustrations for Sir A. Conan Doyle's 'Sherlock Holmes' and 'Rodney Stone' in the 'Strand Magazine' greatly assisted to popularise those stories. The assertion that the artist's brother Walter, or any other person, served as model for the portrait of 'Sherlock Holmes' is incorrect.
A few years before his death Paget developed a painful chest complaint, to which he succumbed at Margate on 28 Jan. 1908. He was buried at the Marylebone cemetery, Finchley. He married in 1893 Edith Hounsfield, who survived him with six children.
[The Times, Telegraph, Morning Post and Daily Chronicle, 1 Feb. 1908, and Sphere, 8 Feb. (with portrait and reproductions of drawings); Who's Who, 1908; Graves's Royal Acad. Exhibitors; information from Mr. H. M. Paget, Royal Academy, and the headmaster of Mill Hill School.]