Charles Altamont Doyle

Charles Altamont Doyle ( born March 25, 1832 in London, † October 10, 1893 in Dumfries, Scotland ) was a British painter. He was the father of Arthur Conan Doyle, to whose book A Study in Scarlet he contributed illustrations to the first edition.

Life

As the son of Irish -born portrait painter and caricaturist John Doyle Charles Doyle had artistic ambitions, but had not inherited his father's talent to the same extent as his older brother Richard Doyle and therefore entered the civil service. In 1849 he moved to Edinburgh, proceeding to take up a position in a public agency. But addition to his work as a civil servant, he made continue to paintings and illustrations.

1855 Doyle married the daughter of his landlady, Mary Foley. Together they had seven children, of whom Arthur Conan Doyle was the second.

Charles Doyle continued to try to distinguish themselves as artists, but because of the demands of his profession he was able to devote to painting little time. His aspired career as an artist did not make any progress, whereas his brother Richard in London was artistically very successful. Charles Doyle became increasingly depressed and addicted to alcohol.

In 1876 he was dismissed from the civil service and trained in the same year according to Fordoun House, a special clinic for alcoholics. During his stay there he was diagnosed with epilepsy, for which there was no treatment at that time.

In 1885 Charles Doyle tried to escape from the hospital and became violent while trying to escape. Then he was sent to the insane asylum Montrose Royal Lunatic Asylum, where he remained until 1892; he could continue to pursue the painting there. During this hospital stay, Charles Doyle made ​​in 1888 six drawings to A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes story of his son Arthur Conan Doyle. The illustrations appeared in the first edition of the story.

1892 Charles Doyle was first transferred to the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, then. In the Crichton Royal Institution, Dumfries, where he died in 1893 after a severe epileptic seizure