Live Auction 2535Old Master & Early British Drawings & Watercolors
Charles Altamont Doyle (London 1832-1893 Crighton Institute, Dumfries)
Lot 136 PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF CHRISTIAN B. PEPER

Charles Altamont Doyle (London 1832-1893 Crighton Institute, Dumfries)

The spirits of the prisoners

Closed26 January 2012

Price Realised

USD 16,250

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Charles Altamont Doyle (London 1832-1893 Crighton Institute, Dumfries)
The spirits of the prisoners
indistinctly inscribed (recto) and further inscribed 'Nos 4 What probably no one ever saw swirl over the sunny side gable and disappear round the Corner The constellation under which this appearance was it observed, was the Great Bear' (verso)
pencil, pen and brown ink, blue wash
14 x 10 1/8 in. (35.4 x 25.7 cm.)

With Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London, 1974, where acquired by Christian Peper.

Specialist note

The tall gabled building depicted in the present watercolour closely resembles that of Sunnyside House, Montrose Royal Lunatic Asylum where Doyle was committed. He was later moved to Crighton Institute in Dumfries where he died of epilepsy. There is a related watercolor showing the same building with the spirits in M. Baker, The Doyle Diary, The Last Great Conan Doyle Mystery, London, 1978, p. 75.