Henry M. Paget

The way in which illustrated papers like the Illustrated London News treated illustrations from correspondents overseas was that they often had an artist rework the material to produce a drawing from which the engraving could be prepared. This was particularly the case with rough sketches and initially with photographs. The following examples, are with one exception, by courtesy of the Wellcome Collection. They show how Paget prepared sketches and photographs from the Greco-Turkish War (1897) and the Boer War by war-correspondents for publication. Hodgson notes that almost all the illustrations published by The Sphere during the Boer War were redrawn in London.[2]

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  Greek retreat from Domokos - Crown Prince Constantine and entourage
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  Soldiers in camp driving off a swarm of locusts with anything to hand.
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  Soldiers in packed train carriages receive tea from women and children on the ground. Form original photo by M Ellis
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  A full military hospital ward housed in a church in Ladysmith (original sketch by H McCormick)

Paget sometimes also turned the sketches into brush and wash or watercolour paintings, as in these examples also from the Boer War, by courtesy of the Wellcome Collection.

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  Removing the wounded after battle from Skion Kop
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  British soldiers tending the wounded Boers after a battle at Potgieter's Drift
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  RAMC Officer bandages a wounded man at Paardeberg Drift (after a photo by Reinhold Thistle)

In addition to his work as an illustrator, he was best known in England as a portrait painter and painter of scenes from history and Greek mythology.[3]

Kirkpatrick lists over fifty books illustrated by Paget.[4]

Henry Paget provided illustrations for the 1890 edition of Doyle's story, "Micah Clarke," published by Longmans, Green, and Company.[5]

The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson had first been published as a serial in Young Folks in 1883 and it was a huge success.[6] Cassell & Co. published the story as a book in 1888, and it was such a success that the first printing sold out to the book trade even before it was published.[7] Cassell brought out a new edition with illustrations by Paget in 1891.[4] The illustrations below are from the 1897 edition by Cassell, from scans at the British Library.[8]

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  The crossbow man aimed at the unsuspecting target
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  The horse neighed and upset the ferry
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  The person dressed as a leper rushed into the open and attacked
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  A few kept drinking and making merry
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  The bride fainted after the bridegroom was killed by an arrow to the heart
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  The Duke dubs Richard a knight
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  His enemy finally lies dead, pierced through the heart by an arrow