Altamont’s The Enchanted Picnic (1882) is a sad picnic that is neither enchanted nor pleasurable. The picnicker, perhaps Doyle himself, having finished four bottles of wine and champagne, is pleasantly suffering delirium tremens. Instead of monsters, the drunk picnicker smiles at fairies, oblivious to their mischief.
The picnic Sunnyside Picnic, 6th June 1889, and Nicer Beer and Sandwiches I Never Met and Tried to Prove show Doyle in a happier frame of mind. Ironically, it’s sketched in his diary while he was a patient at the Montrose Royal Lunatic Asylum. Serving beer is a surprise because Doyle was a recovering alcoholic.
Charles Altamont Doyle. Sunnyside Picnic, 6th June 1889 and Nicer Beer and Sandwiches I Never Met and Tried to Prove, in The Doyle Diary,
PS: Until midlife, Doyle managed a successful career as an illustrator, keeping up his obligations while suffering from epilepsy and alcoholism. At forty-nine, he lost control and was a patient at nursing homes and finally at Crichton Royal Institution, where he died. His son Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, kept his father’s sad life a secret.
Featured Image: Charles Altamont Doyle. The Enchanted Picnic (1882), watercolor on paper. Private Collection
See Charles Altamont Doyle. “Sunnyside Picnic, 6th June 1889 and Nicer Beer and Sandwiches I Never Met and Tried to Prove.” In The Doyle Diary, the Last Great Conan Doyle Mystery, Edited by Michael Baker. New York: Paddington Press, Ltd., 1889; Peter Nahum Ltd, London. Fairy Folk in Fairy Land. London: Peter Nahum at The Leicester Galleries, 1997; http://www.ils.unc.edu/dpr/path/charlesdoyle/articles.htm