Sholmes nodded.
“I have seen your works, Mr Smudgett. If you refer to them as pictures, I should say you are undoubtedly the victim of hallucination.”
“You have seen them? Have you ever seen, Mr Sholmes, in any of my paintings anything that resembles anything in the earth, or the sky, or the waters under the earth?”
“Never!”
“Exactly!” Mr Smudgett wiped his heated brow. “It is to that, Mr Sholmes, that I owe my reputation. You are aware, of course, that I stand at the top of the tree – that I am universally acknowledged to be the chief of the Later-Super-Post-Impressionist School.”
“The Mystery of the Studio”, The Complete Casebook of Herlock Sholmes, Charles Hamilton, circa 1920