Grand-mère et Maman

[mightymads]

I came across a curious article about Holmes's French roots. It proved to be so thought-provoking and headcanon-expanding that I'd like to share some of it here, with some notes of mine in square brackets.

SHERLOCK HOLMES'S ARTISTIC ANCESTRY

FEBRUARY 2, 2022 BY TIMOTHY MILLER

“My ancestors were country squires, who appear to have led much the same life as is natural to their class. But, none the less, my turn that way is in my veins, and may have come with my grandmother, who was the sister of Vernet, the French artist. Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms.”

Now why Doyle decided to hook his fictional character up with the very real Vernets, the family of distinguished French artists, is a matter for conjecture. It’s been hazarded that it was because he came himself from a family of (far less distinguished) English artists. [ACD's grandfather John Doyle, known by the pen name H. B., was a popular Irish political cartoonist; ACD's uncles James, Richard, and Henry Doyle were illustrators and artists; ACD's father Charles Altamont Doyle was also an illustrator, albeit not a successful one].

And since there were three generations, Claude, Carl, and Horace, there is some ambiguity as to exactly which Vernet is meant. Since Horace and Carl both feature (in paintings) the aquiline nose and piercing eyes that Holmes also boasts, that doesn’t clear up the question.

 

But in truth, it can only mean Horace, because only Horace, the youngest, fits into our timeline. Born in 1789 (in the Louvre, where both his father and grandfather had apartments), he was a childhood prodigy and by the age of 13 he was already receiving orders for his work. He painted with lightning speed and his brush was likened to a machine. He also had a phenomenal eye for detail and a prodigious memory. He would have made, dare I say it? an excellent detective.

Paul Delaroche, portrait du peintre Horace Vernet

He had only one sister, Camille (1788-1858), which makes that simpler for us. She married the painter Hippolyte Lecomte, who made his mark, like Vernet, mainly with paintings of battles, though he certainly wasn’t lauded like Vernet, who was a recipient of the Legion of Honor.

His son in turn was the famous Orientalist painter, Emile LeComte, and he [Hippolyte Lecomte] had two daughters. The first, Fanny LeComte, born 1809, is also listed in the family genealogy as a painter. Unfortunately, I was able to find no further information on her. It would be fascinating to trace her career in what was still largely a men’s-only club at the time.

[Françoise Fanny LECOMTE, Artiste Peintre 1809-

Louis LECOMTE ca 1812-

Louise LECOMTE ca 1815-

Charles Emile Hippolyte LECOMTE, Artiste Peintre 1821-1900]

 

This brings us at last to Louise, Lecomte’s second daughter, born in 1815. This lady, of whom nothing more is known, I think must have given birth to Mycroft Holmes in 1847, at the age of thirty-two—remarkably old at the time for a first child. Could she have had earlier miscarriages? Or could she have been Siger Holmes’s second wife? (In which case the Holmes brothers may have had unmentioned half-brothers or sisters, wholly bereft of that artistic spark which Sherlock and Mycroft share.) Or perhaps she was pursuing her own career as a painter up until the point she met her future husband? We can only speculate. But speculating is what historical fiction writers absolutely adore.

At any rate, she would have been thirty-nine, then, when Sherlock was born in the dead of winter. Could she have died in childbirth? Very possibly. Would Siger have blamed her death on Sherlock? Also all too likely. This would explain why he never mentions his parents. It might explain too why he had to live by his wits, inheriting nothing from his father, and why he and Mycroft are more than somewhat distant.

I find it fascinating that Sherlock's mum possibly pursued a carreer before getting married and giving birth, that she was almost forty when Sherlock was born. Perhaps she did survive the childbirth and something else happened. Anyway, at least now I know that her name was Louise. Headcanon accepted!