"Peeps" or "Smatter and Chatter": Late-Victorian Artists Presented as Strand Celebrities

This essay examines how the Strand Magazine promoted the celebrity artist to its middle-class audience. While the Strand’s long-running series “Portraits of Celebrities” and “Illustrated Interviews” copied features from the art periodicals of the day, including the Art Journal and the Magazine of Art, its selection of artists was more conservative. Strand artists were primarily male Royal Academicians whose well-appointed studios demonstrated the hard work that delivered monetary and material wealth. They were gentlemen rather than bohemians, worthy of joining the broad class of professionals who both read and were regularly featured in the Strand.