GEIKIE, WALTER.—It has
often been observed, that the Scottish national character abounds in
contradictions. Poetical though it be, it has never produced a Milton; and
in spite of all its wisdom and sagacity, it has not as yet exhibited a
first-rate statesman. The same inconsistency is perceptible in the fine
arts; so that, in spite of the imaginative and the humorous, by which that
character is distinguished, Scotland has been barren of caricaturists.
From the time of Hogarth to that of H. B., England has so plentifully
abounded with such artists as to be eminently the land of caricature
delineation; but Scotland, with all its shrewd observation, its perception
of the ludicrous, and quiet love of fun, which constitute the chief
elements in this department of pictorial art, has as yet produced no
specimens of it except those of poor Walter Geikie—the very man, too, be
it observed, from whom, on account of his physical disqualifications,
productions of this kind were least to be expected.
Walter Geikie, whose droll
and homely sketches are to be found upon the table of every Edinburgh
drawing-room, was the son of Mr. Archibald Geikie, perfumer, and was born
in Charles Street, George Square, Edinburgh, on the 9th November, 1795.
Before he had completed his second year, he was attacked by a dangerous
ear disease; and although he recovered, it was at the expense of being
deaf and dumb for life. It was too much the fashion at this time in
Scotland to consider dumbies as incapable of education, so that
they were generally allowed to go at large, and vegetate as they best
might; but happily, Walter was the son of a pious and intelligent father,
who had a better sense of his paternal responsibility: he taught his
bereaved boy the alphabet, so that the latter not only learned to read,
but to understand what he read. Writing and arithmetic followed, in which
Walter showed himself an apt scholar. When he had thus acquired the
rudiments of education, it happened, fortunately for him, that Mr.
Braidwood, the successful teacher of the deaf and dumb, was invited to
Edinburgh, to open an institution there, and Geikie became one of his
earliest pupils. In this new school the boy’s proficiency was so rapid
that he was soon employed as a monitor. He showed also that he was no mere
common-place learner, for he was in the practice of writing down extracts
of the passages that best pleased him in the authors whose works he
perused. While he was thus storing his mind with knowledge, and qualifying
himself, notwithstanding his defects, for a life of usefulness, his path
was determined.
While yet a child, he had
been in the practice of cutting out representations of the objects that
struck him on paper; afterwards he had attempted to portray them with
chalk on floors and walls; and rising higher still in pictorial art, he at
length betook himself to the use of the pencil. He did not, however,
satisfy himself, like other young sketchers, with merely copying the
pictures of others: instead of this, he would be satisfied with nothing
short of the original object; and therefore he often roamed about the
suburbs of Edinburgh, or among the fields, transferring into his note-book
whatever most pleased his fancy. This was the form of language in which he
found he could best express himself, and therefore it is not to be
wondered at that he should cultivate it so carefully. At the age of
fourteen he was sent to learn drawing by regular rule, under Mr. Patrick
Gibson, and such was his progress, that in 1812 he was admitted a pupil of
the Academy of Drawing, established for the encouragement of Scottish
manufactures, where he had for his preceptor Mr. Graham, the teacher of
Allan and Wilkie.
By this course of training
the future profession of Walter Geikie was confirmed. He was to be an
artist; and it remained to be seen in what department his excellence was
to consist. It was not certainly in painting, for he soon discovered that
his attempts in oil were decidedly inferior to those of others in warmth
and harmony of colouring; and although his "Itinerant Fiddlers," "All
Hallow Fair," and the "Grassmarket," now in the collection at Hopetoun
House, were the best specimens of his painting in oil, they scarcely
exceed the efforts of a mere fourth-rate artist. It was in sketching that
he best succeeded, while the subjects of his preference were not the
beautiful or the sublime, but the homely and the ludicrous. He would
rather sketch a pig-sty than a palace, and an odd face had more attraction
in his eyes than all the ideal beauty of the Venus de Medicis. It was upon
this predilection that he acted. He hunted about in quest of singular
visages, at which, with his ready pencil, he would take a flying shot as
he passed along the street; and as such commodities are by no means scarce
in Edinburgh, his collection was soon both rich and various. This kind of
sportsmanship, however, was not without its dangers, for those who were
best fitted for the artist’s purposes were generally the least disposed to
have their effigies perpetuated. One amusing incident of this kind is
related by his biographer. Geikie had become desperately enamoured of the
turned-up nose, rhinoceros upper lip, and pot-belly of a porter of the
Grass-market, and longed to appropriate them in such a way as not to
impoverish their lawful owner. But the porter, who had seen his hungry
look, and suspected his purpose, had continued to dodge him, until one day
he found himself all but fixed upon the artist’s paper. Enraged at the
discovery, he stormed, swore, and threatened; but Geikie, who was in
ecstasy with his rich attitudes, and could not hear the threats, continued
the drawing, until he saw his model rushing upon him like a maddened bull
in the arena. He took to his heels, but was so hotly pursued that he had
to take refuge in a common stair; and the porter, thinking that his
tormentor was housed, resolved to await his coming forth. Geikie, in the
meantime, who was watching every movement through a dingy window in the
stair, contrived to finish his sketch, and crown it with the last touch.
But how to get out when his work was finished! This seemed beyond the
power of strategy, for there stood his merciless enemy on the watch; and
there he remained for hours. Some lucky chance at last called away the
bearer of burdens, and Geikie stole from his concealment when he found the
coast clear. He had caught the porter, and saved his own bones. The
fastidious object of his sketch forms a conspicuous figure in the group of
the "Street Auctioneer."
The mirthful spirit of the
artist, which drew him so powerfully to congenial subjects, was not
confined to drawing; it found vent also in buoyant mimicry, in which he
could act the droll characters of his daily search, as well as draw them.
In this way, though deprived of the power of utterance, he could deliver
jokes that set the company in a roar. It is gratifying also to add, that
with all this mirthfulness there was a soundness of moral principle and
depth of religious feeling within him that aimed at nobler ends than the
harmless amusement of society. From infancy he had received a religious
education, and it was all the more endeared to him, perhaps, from the
difficulty which he must have found in acquiring those spiritual ideas of
which he saw so few visible symbols. Sacred and sincere, indeed, must be
the devotion of the deaf and dumb! He was also eager to impart what he had
learned, and therefore, with two friends under the same bereavement as
himself, he established a religious meeting of the deaf and dumb, to whom,
on the Sabbaths, he preached and expounded by signs. After Geikle’s death
this interesting congregation was kept up by a worthy successor, who, we
believe, still continues the good work which the artist so laudably
commenced. After an uninterrupted course of good health, a short illness
of a few days occurred, under which Geikie died, on the 1st of
August, 1837. He was buried in the Greyfriars’ church-yard. Of his
productions it is unnecessary to enter into farther analysis, as these,
ninety-four in number, illustrative of Scottish character and scenery,
have been published in one volume, and are familiarly known to almost
every class. They are also accompanied with explanations, and a
biographical introduction by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, from which the
foregoing facts have been chiefly derived.
Little Anderson
Close
See Fine Arts Museum for some of his work
See Geikie's
Engravings |