Sem, Frederick

c 1835

c 1881

Drawings by the artist Frederick Sem can be found in the collections of the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC and the National Portrait Gallery, London. The Folger holds a volume titled “Sem’s Pantheon of Celebrities of the Day” dated 1876, and the drawings are very similar to those found in the two Garrick Club volumes. In the past works by Frederick Sem have been mistakenly attributed to George Goursat 1863-1934, a French caricaturist who assumed the monogram “Sem” and the records in museum collections for the two have in the past been conflated into those of Goursat. Between c.1873 - 75 he worked for the little known journal “The Hornet” (formerly “The Haringay Hornet”) and produced practically all its illustrations at this time, in addition to designing its masthead. In the issue for 12 April 1873 the artist was introduced to its readership: “You see , there are so many of us now, all crowded into this little paper and all complaining of want of room. M. Sem - a host in himself.” “The Era” newspaper for 18 July 1875 (p. 11) reported an exhibition by Sem of 400 drawings: “Sem’s Gallery of Celebrities” was shown at the “Pictorial Repository” of James N Locke on Booksellers Row, Strand. It is possible that the drawings in the Garrick Club volumes were exhibited then, as they show evidence of being bound and cropped only at a later date. Little more is known about Sem, however according to census records in 1871 there was a Frederick Sem living in the parish of St George, Bloomsbury. He gave his place of birth as the south of France and age recorded as 36, suggesting he was born around 1835. He was married to Florence, aged 20, from Dover. In 1881 he was a widowed lodger at 25 Duke Street, Bloomsbury, and records his profession as “Artist Draughtsman”. References: “The Search for Sem.” Unpublished paper by Marcus Risdell presented at the Understanding British Portraits Annual Symposia, National Portrait Gallery 27 November 2013. “The Mysterious Sem.” By Erin Blake. “The Collation; a gathering of Scholarship from the Folger Shakespeare Library” 3 April 2013 [http://collation.folger.edu/2013/04/the-mysterious-sem/ accessed 29.07.2014] Between c.1873 - 75 he worked for the little known journal “The Hornet” (formerly “The Haringay Hornet”) and produced practically all its illustrations at this time, in addition to designing its masthead. In the issue for 12 April 1873 the artist was introduced to its readership: “You see , there are so many of us now, all crowded into this little paper and all complaining of want of room. M. Sem - a host in himself.” “The Era” newspaper for 18 July 1875 (p. 11) reported an exhibition by Sem of 400 drawings: “Sem’s Gallery of Celebrities” was shown at the “Pictorial Repository” of James N Locke on Booksellers Row, Strand. It is possible that the drawings in the Garrick Club volumes were exhibited then, as they show evidence of being bound and cropped only at a later date. Little more is known about Sem, however according to census records in 1871 there was a Frederick Sem living in the parish of St George, Bloomsbury. He gave his place of birth as the south of France and age recorded as 36, suggesting he was born around 1835. He was married to Florence, aged 20, from Dover. In 1881 he was a widowed lodger at 25 Duke Street, Bloomsbury, and records his profession as “Artist Draughtsman”. References: “The Search for Sem.” Unpublished paper by Marcus Risdell presented at the Understanding British Portraits Annual Symposia, National Portrait Gallery 27 November 2013. “The Mysterious Sem.” By Erin Blake. “The Collation; a gathering of Scholarship from the Folger Shakespeare Library” 3 April 2013 [http://collation.folger.edu/2013/04/the-mysterious-sem/ accessed 29.07.2014]