Charles Altamont Doyle (1832-1893) was the youngest son of the political cartoonist John Doyle, father of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
and brother of the fantasy artist Richard Doyle. Charles Doyle was an Edinburgh civil servant. He occasionally illustrated books and designed architectural schemes like the Holyrood Palace Fountain and exhibited sporadically at the Royal Scottish Academy between 1862-87. A victim of alcholism and later epilepsy, he spent his later years from the late 1870's in a series of hospitals, where the most memorable portion of his work was done. He died in a mental hospital near Dumfries on 10th October, 1893. Those watercolours here date from about the 1880's when Doyle was still hospitalised. Doyle created numerous visual puns, fantastical compositions observed directly from nature, painted in clear, child-like outline and pure washes. A highly principled man, many subjects refer to piety and worldly temptations. All are valuable additions to the fairy canon.
Charles Altamont Doyle (1832-1893)
Details
Charles Altamont Doyle (1832-1893)
The Fairy Tree
pencil, pen and black ink and watercolour, unframed
11 1/8 x 15in.
The Fairy Tree
pencil, pen and black ink and watercolour, unframed
11 1/8 x 15in.
Provenance
Arthur Conan Doyle
Literature
Richard Doyle and his Family, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1984.
R.K. Engen Richard Doyle, Stroud, 1983, (list of exhibited works.) Robert Wark, Charles Doyle's Fairyland, Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1980.
Michael Baker The Doyle Diary, London, 1978.
R.K. Engen Richard Doyle, Stroud, 1983, (list of exhibited works.) Robert Wark, Charles Doyle's Fairyland, Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1980.
Michael Baker The Doyle Diary, London, 1978.