The artist Charles Altamont Doyle was the father of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He was institutionalized in mental hospitals from middle age onward, although by today's standards he was not insane. Nor did he think he was insane, and tried to prove with his art that he wasn't. It didn't work. Basically, he was an alcoholic and depressed. He was a trained artist and his works are poignant and delicate. There's an interesting book called The Doyle Diary by Michael Baker (1978) that reproduces Charles Doyle's journal sketches from his time in Sunnyside mental institution in Scotland. If you think these works are strange, his brother Richard "Dicky" Doyle was a famous Victorian artist well known for his fairy illustrations. Years later, Arthur Conan Doyle publicized "fairy photographs" which he believed were real. By today's standards, these photographs are pretty fake looking. Even back then, they were debunked. My point being that the entire family (not just the one who was institutionalized) had a "thing" for fairies.
St. Giles His Bells (unknown location).
Meditation, Self Portrait (V&A Museum, London). This watercolour comes from one of the sketchbooks used by the artist during his stay in the Royal Montrose Lunatic Asylum in Scotland. His son, the writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, organised an exhibition of the artist's work in London in 1924. http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/16458-popup.html
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