Richard Doyle (1824-1883)

Richard Doyle was born into a family of artists. He had no formal training other than in his father's studio and he illustrated his first book at the age of twelve. He joined the staff of Punch in 1843 and designed the masthead which was used until the 1950s. Doyle was fascinated with elves and fairies and illustrated a number of books of fairy tales. His work, In Fairyland: A series of Pictures from the Elf-World, is considered one of the finest examples of Victorian book production. Doyle was the uncle of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes stories.