What make a Holmes a Holmes?
This morning I realised that I've been convinced for no reason at all that Holmes has grey eyes, Watson is (was) blond, and a couple of other things that have no real basis in fact, and now I want to figure out why... (ETA: Turns out Holmes does have grey eyes)
Here's the background: A while ago I decided to go about watching all the Holmes adaptations I could possibly get my hands on, and posting mini-reviews (the last of which was almost a year ago now, oh dear...). I was sketching all the actors who played Holmes or Watson at the same, for which purpose I'd built up a large collection of headshots of the different Holmeses and Watsons. So I got Mr Garonne to go through them and identify which ones were Holmes and which were Watson. It wasn't completely scientific, because (1) he already knew some of the answers, and (2) some of the actors had costumes or props that made it obvious they were supposed to be Holmes. (I'm not sure Livanov would be an obvious Holmes, for instance, but in my little test pic he was posing with a pipe in a very Holmesian manner - too easy!)
Anyway, in the end he got everyone right except Panin and Petrenko in the recent Russian series. There, he identified Holmes as Watson and vice versa. Judge for yourselves:
Here's Watson being Holmesian.
And here's Holmes
Here they are together. Holmes is on the left and Watson on the right, which seems obvious, but perhaps only because I always think of Holmes as having darker hair than Watson, and why on earth should I think that?
So, time to do a bit of digging into canon and on the internet!
Holmes first
The fullest description is in STUD: "In height he was rather over six feet, and so excessively lean that he seemed to be considerably taller. His eyes were sharp and piercing, save during those intervals of torpor to which I have alluded; and his thin, hawk-like nose gave his whole expression an air of alertness and decision. His chin, too, had the prominence and squareness which mark the man of determination. His hands were invariably blotted with ink and stained with chemicals, yet he was possessed of extraordinary delicacy of touch..."
Later we have "his clear-cut, hawklike features", "his eager, aquiline face", "with his thin knees drawn up to his hawk-like nose", and
"his strong-set aquiline features".
There's a definite ornithological theme here, even if we never get the "raven-black hair" beloved of fanfic writers ;) (He is described as ravenously hungry several times, though!)
Speaking of his hair colour, I can't seem to find any reference to it at all, though we do have "his brows were drawn into two hard black lines", so presumably he had hair to match. In any case, the dark hair certainly comes mostly from Paget's illustrations.
But what about the eyes? There's absolutely nothing about Holmes having grey eyes in canon (though an extraordinary number of other characters do have grey eyes, including Moriarty) and it can't come from Sidney Paget's illustrations, nor from years of black-and-white film and TV. Actually when he's in disguise once he's described as having "keen dark eyes" and once they have a "steely glitter", and steel is grey, I suppose, but it's a bit weak, isn't it? ETA (thanks to spacefall): Mystery solved! Many canonical references to grey eyes after all: "quick grey eyes", "his grey eyes dancing with amusement", "a twinkle of amusement in his austere grey eyes", and "a steady grey eye and mocking smile".
Can't find anything about his having a high forehead or receding hairline either, but that's obviously Paget.
Now Watson
There's not a lot to go on here.
"as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut." (STUD)
"... a middle-sized, strongly built man--square jaw, thick neck, moustache ..." (CHAS)
And a few other mentions of a moustache (NAVA, CHAR, REDC).
What I want to know is, why is he so often portrayed in fanfic and on screen as having fair hair before it went grey? Just because a fair-haired actor looks good with a dark-haired Holmes?
In Paget's illustrations his hair does admittedly look a bit lighter than Holmes. Could be a mousy brown, though! He seems to be grey already by the time a few coloured illustrations appear in the Strand after 1900. (Haven't seen them all in colour, though. I only have them in black and white myself.)
So what do you all think? Have I missed some description of Holmes or Watson in the stories? Anyone have other theories?
Watson's description is from "What do we really know about Sherlock Holmes and John Watson?" by Leslie Klinger. Holmes' description is from me skimming through the complete canon myself, so I probably didn't catch every single reference to his appearance.
Here's the background: A while ago I decided to go about watching all the Holmes adaptations I could possibly get my hands on, and posting mini-reviews (the last of which was almost a year ago now, oh dear...). I was sketching all the actors who played Holmes or Watson at the same, for which purpose I'd built up a large collection of headshots of the different Holmeses and Watsons. So I got Mr Garonne to go through them and identify which ones were Holmes and which were Watson. It wasn't completely scientific, because (1) he already knew some of the answers, and (2) some of the actors had costumes or props that made it obvious they were supposed to be Holmes. (I'm not sure Livanov would be an obvious Holmes, for instance, but in my little test pic he was posing with a pipe in a very Holmesian manner - too easy!)
Anyway, in the end he got everyone right except Panin and Petrenko in the recent Russian series. There, he identified Holmes as Watson and vice versa. Judge for yourselves:
Here's Watson being Holmesian.
And here's Holmes
Here they are together. Holmes is on the left and Watson on the right, which seems obvious, but perhaps only because I always think of Holmes as having darker hair than Watson, and why on earth should I think that?
So, time to do a bit of digging into canon and on the internet!
Holmes first
The fullest description is in STUD: "In height he was rather over six feet, and so excessively lean that he seemed to be considerably taller. His eyes were sharp and piercing, save during those intervals of torpor to which I have alluded; and his thin, hawk-like nose gave his whole expression an air of alertness and decision. His chin, too, had the prominence and squareness which mark the man of determination. His hands were invariably blotted with ink and stained with chemicals, yet he was possessed of extraordinary delicacy of touch..."
Later we have "his clear-cut, hawklike features", "his eager, aquiline face", "with his thin knees drawn up to his hawk-like nose", and
"his strong-set aquiline features".
There's a definite ornithological theme here, even if we never get the "raven-black hair" beloved of fanfic writers ;) (He is described as ravenously hungry several times, though!)
Speaking of his hair colour, I can't seem to find any reference to it at all, though we do have "his brows were drawn into two hard black lines", so presumably he had hair to match. In any case, the dark hair certainly comes mostly from Paget's illustrations.
But what about the eyes? There's absolutely nothing about Holmes having grey eyes in canon (though an extraordinary number of other characters do have grey eyes, including Moriarty) and it can't come from Sidney Paget's illustrations, nor from years of black-and-white film and TV. Actually when he's in disguise once he's described as having "keen dark eyes" and once they have a "steely glitter", and steel is grey, I suppose, but it's a bit weak, isn't it? ETA (thanks to spacefall): Mystery solved! Many canonical references to grey eyes after all: "quick grey eyes", "his grey eyes dancing with amusement", "a twinkle of amusement in his austere grey eyes", and "a steady grey eye and mocking smile".
Can't find anything about his having a high forehead or receding hairline either, but that's obviously Paget.
Now Watson
There's not a lot to go on here.
"as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut." (STUD)
"... a middle-sized, strongly built man--square jaw, thick neck, moustache ..." (CHAS)
And a few other mentions of a moustache (NAVA, CHAR, REDC).
What I want to know is, why is he so often portrayed in fanfic and on screen as having fair hair before it went grey? Just because a fair-haired actor looks good with a dark-haired Holmes?
In Paget's illustrations his hair does admittedly look a bit lighter than Holmes. Could be a mousy brown, though! He seems to be grey already by the time a few coloured illustrations appear in the Strand after 1900. (Haven't seen them all in colour, though. I only have them in black and white myself.)
So what do you all think? Have I missed some description of Holmes or Watson in the stories? Anyone have other theories?
Watson's description is from "What do we really know about Sherlock Holmes and John Watson?" by Leslie Klinger. Holmes' description is from me skimming through the complete canon myself, so I probably didn't catch every single reference to his appearance.