David Henry Friston

Friston produced illustrations and artworks from the 1850s to the late 1880s. His professional career appears to have started by 1853, when he exhibited Mazeppa at the Royal Academy of Art. Friston exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art a total of 14 times between 1853 and 1869, though he was never elected a member of the Academy. He also exhibited at least six examples of his work at the British Institution (between 1854 and 1867). In their critical companion to the 1858 Royal Academy of Arts exhibition, the Council of Four record the presence of Friston's work A Rising Artist, in the West Room of the galleries, noting of Friston "Considerable character in the boyThe Royal Academy Review: A guide to the Royal Academy of Arts, The Council of Four, 1858

By 1863 Friston had started making illustrations for various books and periodicals, including The Churchman's Family Magazine (1863), Tinsley's Magazine (1867), extensively for the Illustrated London News between 1869 and 1878, The Boys' Herald and Dark Blue (1871–73). Among his earlier published works was a frontispiece for Emma Davenport's Our Birthdays, and How to Improve Them (1864).Davenport, Emma Anne Georgina, with frontispiece by D. H. Friston, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FXIkHQAACAAJ&q=%22D+H+Friston%22 Our Birthdays, and how to Improve Them], Griffith and Farran, 1864, online at books.google.com, accessed 6 December 2008 His illustrations for journals include many engravings accompanying reviews of the original productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operas or plays of W. S. Gilbert in the 1870s, including The Princess (1870), Thespis (1871), The Wicked World (1873), The Realm of Joy (1873), The Happy Land (1873), Sweethearts (1874), Tom Cobb (1875), Trial by Jury (1875), H.M.S. Pinafore (1878) and Princess Ida (1884). For Cassell, he illustrated an edition of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.Nowell-Smith, Simon, The House of Cassell, 1848-1958 (Cassell, 1958), p. 82 He also illustrated short stories such as the cult-classic female vampire story Carmilla (1872), The Three Lieutenants (1874) and The Three Commanders (1875) (the last two by William Henry Giles Kingston). For Groombridge, he illustrated a volume of children's stories called The magnet stories for summer days and winter nights.[https://archive.org/details/magnetstoriesfor00frisiala The magnet stories for summer days and winter nights], illustrations by D. H. Friston, London: Groombridge and sons

Image:friston-holmes.gif, A Study in Scarlet: illustration by David Henry Friston, in Beeton's Christmas Annual, 1887]]

In 1887, Friston was chosen by Ward, Lock & Co. to supply the illustrations for the first edition of Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, which was also the first Sherlock Holmes adventure. Friston created four pictures for the story, which were engraved by W.M.R. Quick, and published in the 1887 issue of Beeton's Christmas Annual.Stock, Randall. [http://www.bestofsherlock.com/beetons-christmas-annual.htm "Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887: An Annotated Checklist and Census"], The Best of Sherlock Holmes website, 7 October 2008 Friston's pictures are acknowledged to be the first portraits of the Holmes character.Klinefelter, Walter. [http://www.bookshare.org/web/SingleTitle.html?submittitleid=30159 "Sherlock Holmes in Portrait and Profile"]{{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Syracuse University Press (1963)[http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/h/holmes.htm Sherlock Holmes] at the International Superheroes site The annual was issued in November at a price of one shilling and had sold out before Christmas.

The Bookman of New York noted, in 1932, that Friston's Holmes had attracted some criticism: "For the initial appearance of a detective whose exploits were to be recorded for nearly forty years, a veteran illustrator of that day, D. H. Friston, was called upon. This first picture of Holmes would distress the devotees. Friston's Holmes is neither handsome nor intellectual".The Bookman: A Review of Books and Life, vol. 75, p. 354, 1932, [https://books.google.com/books?id=uQwTAAAAMAAJ&q=%22D+H+Friston%22 available online] at books.google.com, accessed 6 December 2008 The Bedside, Bathtub, and Armchair Companion to Sherlock Holmes agreed and described his Holmes as "an outrage". It noted of the detail of Friston's creation: "His head and hands appear small, almost feminine, his sideburns are ridiculously long, and his figure is plump, dwarfed by the oversize coat. On his head appears a strange, rounded hat. This Holmes looks nothing like the detective we know".The Bedside, Bathtub, and Armchair Companion to Sherlock Holmes

Also in the late 1880s, Friston illustrated the work of the American Mary Noailles Murfree, writing as Charles Egbert Craddock.Notice for In the Clouds (1886) [https://books.google.com/books?id=3DcPAAAAQAAJ&q=%22D+H+Friston%22 available online] at books.google.com, accessed 6 December 2008

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{{Commons category|David Henry Friston}}

• {{Gutenberg author | id=9932| name=David Henry Friston}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=David Henry Friston}}
• [http://www.artnet.com/artist/688923/david-henry-friston.html Two works by Friston]
• [http://john-adcock.blogspot.com/2008/04/boys-herald.html Description of Friston's work for Boy's Herald]
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090120120640/http://jslefanu.com/cooke.html Illustrations from Carmilla]}}
• [http://www.art.com/asp/sp-asp/_/pd--12364891/sp--A/igid--1734441/At_Newport_Monmouthshire_Chartist_Rioters_from_Nearby_Mines_Led_by_John_Frost_Fire.htm?sOrig=CAT&sOrigID=0&ui=AF8EA1E8B34141ACA708B98590956AB5 Illustration of Chartist Riots at Newport] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130117073742/http://www.art.com/asp/sp-asp/_/pd--12364891/sp--A/igid--1734441/At_Newport_Monmouthshire_Chartist_Rioters_from_Nearby_Mines_Led_by_John_Frost_Fire.htm?sOrig=CAT&sOrigID=0&ui=AF8EA1E8B34141ACA708B98590956AB5 |date=17 January 2013 }}
• [http://www.ewbankauctions.co.uk/asp/fullcatalogue.asp?salelot=DEC08A+++394+&refno=+++12100&image=0 Friston's oil painting "Sunday" (1862)]
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=CsGKl5q-CMoC&dq=Friston+Illustrated+News&pg=PA214 Illustration of a pantomime at Drury Lane] for The Illustrated London News, 8 January 1876, reprinted in Daily Life in Victorian England by Sally Mitchell, p. 214 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20081210014724/http://www.library.rochester.edu/index.cfm?page=4089&Print=62 Illustration of Princess Ida] at the Savoy Theatre, 19 January 1884, from the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News.
• [http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/h/holmes.htm Large copy of Friston's first depiction of Holmes]

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Category:English illustrators

Category:People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan

Category:People of the Victorian era

Category:1820 births

Category:1906 deaths