Three faces of Mr Sime

Sidney Sime is nowadays remembered for his collaborations with Lord Dunsany, when he is remembered at all, but in his time he was a highly celebrated artist and cartoonist. Here we have three examples of his solo work. "Midnight Oil", above, was drawn for The Idler in 1899. Take a look at that face, that hand, and tell me Bernie Wrightson never studied Sime's drawings.

Then we've got this cartoon from Punch. Dunsany liked huntin', shootin' and fishin', and was often gadding off to Scotland, where Sime lived in his early thirties, to pursue these leisure interests. However, I think this predates their first meeting.

Lastly a portrait in oils of Miss Mary Susan Pickett. In 1898, at the age of 33, Sime was studying watercolours in South Kensington. A reflected face appeared in the glass of a dark picture. She was a painter too. He asked to borrow a tube of lamp-black that he didn't need. That year they married in Edinburgh, and were together until Sime's death in 1941.