Discovering Sherlock Holmes - A Community Reading Project From Stanford University

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"Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse"

George Colman's son of the same name became a greater playwright than his father

"That's lucky for him--in fact, it's lucky for all of you, since you are all on the wrong side of the law in this matter. I am not sure that as a conscientious detective my first duty is not to arrest the whole household. Watson's reports are most incriminating documents."
This is a typical example of Holmes's dry humor. It is also clear that he, at least, sees that the plan to send Selden to South America was not the most brilliant idea.

"Watson won't allow that I know anything of art, but that is mere jealousy, because our views upon the subject differ."
Despite Watson's earlier protestations in chapter V that Holmes possessed "the crudest ideas" of art, Holmes does seem able to identify works by major painters of the previous century.

"That's a Kneller, I'll swear, that lady in the blue silk over yonder..."
Sir Godfrey Kneller (1649?-1723) was a German-born painter who became one of the leading portraitists of England. His style influenced English portraiture for at least a generation.

"...and the stout gentleman with the wig ought to be a Reynolds."
Born in Devon, Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) was probably the most important of 18^th-century British painters. His portrait list reads like a "Who's Who" of late 18^th-century society. He was the first president of the British Royal Academy, and, through his writings on artistic style and technique, he influenced the course of aesthetics and art history far beyond the impact of his paintings alone.

At right, two engravings after paintings by Reynolds: the first, an allegorical portrait of Mrs. Sarah Siddons (1755-1831), England's leading actress during her lifetime; the second, a portrait of George Colman the elder (1732-1794), dramatist, writer, and sometime manager of Covent Garden Theatre and Drury Lane Theatre. Both engravings are from H. Saxe Wyndham, Annals of Covent Garden Theatre, vol. I, 1906.

"That is Rear-Admiral Baskerville, who served under Rodney in the West Indies."
George Brydges Rodney (1719?-1792) was a successful British naval strategist during the American Revolutionary War who conquered the island of Martinique, in the West Indies.