When the 13 stories of The Return of Sherlock Holmes were to appear in Collier’s in 1903, Steele was the natural choice. William Gillette had scored a triumph when his play, Sherlock Holmes, opened in 1899. Gillette never modeled for Steele, but the actor was Steele’s inspiration. Steele captured Sherlock Holmes’s charisma, his presence, his romance, his confidence, and created an idealized portrait which became an enduring, permanent contribution to the character — and an inspiration for other artists in other media. Steele knew John Barrymore, who starred as Holmes in a 1922 film based on Gillette’s play. Barrymore told Steele that “My Holmes looks more like yours than Gillette’s. We had all your old pictures out on the lot.”

Steele drew eleven spectacular color covers and nearly fifty interior illustrations for the Return series in Collier’s, and illustrated all but four of the thirty-three Holmes stories Conan Doyle wrote after 1903. 

The Return: cover gallery