The Sketch was created and published by the Illustrated London News under the editorship of firstly Clement Shorter and William Ingram and then latterly by his son Bruce Ingram. The Sketch ran for nearly 70 years and embraced British high society with a focus on fashion, the arts, theatre and everything royal, through sumptuous photography and illustration. The magazine was aimed firmly at the middle and upper-class market, designed to ‘appeal to cultivated people who in their leisure moments look for light reading and amusing pictures with a high artistic value’.

The Sketch was the first magazine to feature short stories by Agatha Christie and Walter de la Mare and introduced the world to George E Studdy’s cartoon creation Bonzo the Dog. William Heath Robinson featured heavily with illustrations of all manner of hilarious inventions, keeping up morale during the First World War. David Lloyd Wright’s Lovelies did the took on that mantle during the 1940’s and ‘50’s. Other contributors included Olive Snell, Dorothy Wilding, Edmund Blampied, Cecil Beaton, Max Beebohm and H M Bateman.

As a magazine which advocated for the societal elite, it was strongly in favour of Royalty, Empire and even an apologist for any perceived 19th century Imperial wrongdoing. The Sketch did cover events at home and abroad but with a light-hearted approach and ever in favour of the establishment. During the First World War it proved popular with society women and it began to highlight the role that women played in the war effort. The weekly magazine published some 3,500 issues over the course of its lifetime.