paintings

This pencil study Return from the Market was sketched by George Edwin Hartnoll Hogg and was found as a loose-leaf insertion in a book used as a teaching resource by the Manchester Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. It was acquired by the Deaf Museum & Archive.

Who was he?

George E. H. Hogg was probably born deaf in Bideford, Devon, in February 1819. His father John Hogg was a chemist and a classical Latin scholar. At the age of eight he and his deaf brother John Jewell Hogg were educated at the West of England Institution for the Deaf and Dumb Exeter under the famed Henry Brothers Bingham. The school used a combined system and George was a  pupil for seven years, excelling in arithmetic, and could mentally work out complicated numerical calculations in a short time. After Bingham became headmaster of the Manchester Institution for the Deaf and Dumb in 1834, Hogg joined his teaching staff two years later and stayed at the Institution as a teacher for 43 years and was its longest serving Deaf teacher. When the school decided to adopt the oral policy in 1879 Hogg resigned and became a lay-missioner in various towns in Lancashire. He lived at Sale in Cheshire with William and Sarah Cordingly, a Deaf farm labourer and his Deaf wife. William was a former pupil of George Hogg. In the 1891 census George is shown as living in Withington, Stretford, with another deaf couple, Ann and William Morton. At the late age
of 73 he married Louisa Williams, deaf dressmaker, aged 45 year old, born in Stockport in Shropshire in 1892. They moved to Macclesfield and then to Leicester where he died on 22nd April 1906 at the grand age of 86 years old.

 

 

He excelled at pencil drawing but he was a brilliant arithmetician and had a remarkable talent for mental calculations, especially division and multiplication. Henry Brothers Bingham wrote a book about George’s mental calculations.

 

Photo of George Hogg: An Old Deaf  Teacher, British Deaf Monthly, 1901, Vol. 10, p. 204

Walter Geikie RSA, a deaf and dumb man, was one of the most remarkable Scottish artists in the early 19th century. The Shoe Stand and The Grandchild reading are two original engravings, donated from the estate of Margaret Lawrie. Geikie sketched both works and his studies of Edinburgh’s population were honest, humorous, full of empathy and showed a wide variety of everyday life from the revelry of the fairground to agricultural labour.

His images of people eating and drinking, working, participating in family conversations and socialising illustrated his frank attitude to life. He even drew people fighting, drinking to excess in taverns and fairgrounds and then staggering home, physically supported by some members of their families.

Walter simply drew what he saw, creating images of people around him, giving us fascinating glimpses into the past of what people did, what they wore and what they looked like, revealing much about how Edinburgh’s poor and working classes lived. Geikie seemed not to be interested in portraying middle-class and rich people since there are no drawings of them.

Who was he?

The son of a pharmacist, Walter Geikie was born in Edinburgh on 9th November 1795 and became deaf just before his 2nd birthday when he contracted a serious fever that resulted in permanent hearing loss. (It could have been meningitis). He grew up deaf and dumb and his father could not afford to send him to deaf schools in the south of England so his father searched for guidance to  educate his son. Fortunately he came across Joseph Watson’s book The Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and used it to work tirelessly on Walter’s education, teaching him to communicate, read and write. His artistic ambitions emerged in his childhood, perhaps as a necessary means of self-expression. According to his biographer Thomas Dick Lauder he began drawing figures on the ground, walls, doors and pavements before he was given his first sketchbook. Again his family encouraged him and in 1812 he was admitted to the Trustees’ Academy of Edinburgh in which he received training from several tutors and he first exhibited in 1821. After that he soon began showing his artworks regularly. His works gained respect and were very well received and esteemed so much that he was elected to the Scottish Academy in 1831 and then in 1834 he was honoured by being elected as an Academician. It appears that he was colour blind. He received special training to do oils but these oil works were not so successful as his etchings.

It was said that Geikie was a very lively and sociable person, possessing a strong sense of humour and was a gifted mimic, often entertaining other members of the Academy with his  impersonations of people, making them roar with laughter. This would explain his acute observational skills as his depiction of the daily life of working people was a ‘warts and all’ approach that was unusual for his time.

In this etching of a boy drawing on the floor a figure on horseback, making him the focus of attention with two seated adults looking on admiringly. Was it how Geikie remembered himself as a child, drawing on the floor as a part of his communication to get his message across? His brother had recalled that with Geikie “shut out from intercourse with boys of his own age, he found resources of his own, and getting chalk, began to draw figures on the floor, on doors, and any smooth surface within reach.” When his father became aware of Walter’s budding talent from observing his drawings on floor he gave his son pencils and a sketchbook.

Geikie associated with the deaf people of Edinburgh, communicating with them through sign language and was a cofounder of the world’s first Deaf Church and Society, the Edinburgh Deaf and Dumb Benevolent Society. He took active part in the work of this society but as he was a vigorous and  sociable person, not shy at all, he was well known to the inhabitants of Edinburgh and very popular.

 

One would have thought he would do some drawings of deaf people socialising or going about with their daily lives but that was not detected in any of his works. Usually in hearing artists’ work their portraits of people would show their hands resting on their laps or holding something but in several of Walter’s works people were using their hands – were they signing?

Geikie died in August 1837 aged 41 after a short illness of a few days and he was buried in Greyfriars Churchyard. It was said he left over 1,100 original sketches, but no selfportrait could be traced.

Did he include a drawing of himself in any of his works?

Thomas Arrowsmith, a deaf artist, painted this Miniature of A Lady Wearing A Mop Cap. This miniature was acquired by the Deaf Museum & Archive from Anderson and Garland Auctioneers, Newcastle, in 2014.

Who was Thomas Arrowsmith?

Thomas was born deaf in 1771 in Newent, Gloucestershire, the fourth son of six children of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Arrowsmith. His early years were described in the book The Art of Instructing the Infant Deaf and Dumb, published in 1819, the author being Thomas’ younger brother John. When he was about four or five, he was educated in a local hearing school at the insistence of his mother. At school he was taught to read and write but not to speak. He was able to attain a good command of written English. It is not known where he was educated after leaving the village school but it is believed that at the age of 12 or 13 he entered Braidwood’s Academy for the Deaf and Dumb in Mare Street, Hackney, London.

He first exhibited at Somerset House in 1792. In later years he painted several of his teachers and fellow pupils. He was a prolific painter, doing many miniatures and the occasional large portraits. In 1812 he married Elizabeth Carpenter who may have been be deaf too. They went up North, living in various places such as Lancashire, Liverpool and Manchester. It is not known when Thomas  died but it is believed that he died in 1829-30.

 

Portrait of Thomas Arrowsmith

Charles Shirreff, a deaf artist, painted this miniature of a Subaltern Officer in the Navy. This miniature Portrait of a Young Naval Subaltern (c. 1800), watercolour on ivory, was acquired from a Sotheby’s (Paris) auction in 2015 and our bid was successful, thanks to both a private donation and a 60% grant from the Art Council’s Art Acquisitions Fund. Geoffrey Eagling, the BDHS  reasurer, was sent over on the Eurostar to Paris to collect it!

Who was he?

Charles was the son of Alexander Shirreff, a wealthy wine merchant of South Leith, Scotland. At the age of three or four Charles became deaf. In 1760 his father approached Thomas Braidwood,  owner of a school of mathematics, seeking an education for the boy, then ten years old, in the hope that he could be taught to write. Charles has a special niche in Deaf history as the first ever pupil to be educated in a proper British school for the deaf, run by Thomas Braidwood as Braidwood’s Academy in Edinburgh. It was later to be known as Braidwood’s Academy for the Deaf and Dumb.

In 1769  Charles left the Academy aged 18 to go to the Royal Academy School of Art in London, graduating in 1772 with a silver medal. He took up a career as a miniaturist. He successfully exhibited at the Free Society of Artists and built up a clientele that was mainly theatrical, and forming a strong friendship with David Garrick, the famous actor. He also made an advantageous association with the portraitist Sir Joshua Reynolds.

He had a successful career as a miniature painter in London and then in Bath. His father had been financially ruined in the Crisis of 1772 by the failure of a banking house. Shireff had to support his family before applying to go to Madras in India in 1778. He stated in his application to the East India Company that he had no speech but was able to make himself understood by signs. He requested that his father and sister accompany him to act as his interpreters but his plan to visit India was abandoned so it was not until 1795 that he renewed his application and was successful. He went to India and painted in Madras for some years. His most productive period was probably in India where he painted hundreds of miniatures of British officers and their wives. He then moved to Calcutta where he worked on his Illustrations of Signs. He announced it was nearly completed and would be available to subscribers but this work has never been traced. It is presumed lost in passage from India. In 1809 he returned from India and on 11th January 1810 married Mary Ann Brown, a sister of a fellow artist, at St George’s, Hanover Square, London. The couple lived in Fitzroy Square, London, and later in Connaught Square. They retired to Bath where he died in 1829. (His death is assumed to be in 1829 as his will was proved in court on 5th November 1829)

Richard Crosse, a deaf artist, painted this miniature of A Gentleman, in a goldembroidered coat and a powdered wig. It was acquired by the Deaf Museum & Archive as a post-sale purchase from Christie’s, London, in December 2014.

Who was Richard Crosse?

Richard was the second son of John Crosse, a lawyer, and his wife Mary and was born in Knowle, near Cullompton, Devon, in 1742. He was privately educated as was his sister Alice who was also deaf. It is not known who educated them as unfortunately the family records were destroyed in a fire in the 1870s.

When he was 16 he won a premium at the Society of Artists in 1758 and went to study at Sibley’s Drawing School and the Duke of Richmond’s Gallery in London.

He became such a prolific painter, painting hundreds of miniatures between one and half inches and six inches high. An illustration of how well educated he was can be seen in his ledger held by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In his ledger he meticulously recorded every painting he did and sold. His records show that he painted a total of 61 works in fewer than five months between 13th September 1776 and 30th January 1777, which earned him a total of £572, excellent money for his time.

He did so well in his career that he was appointed Court Painter in Enamel to King George III in 1789. He fell in love with his cousin Sarah Cobley who declined his offer of marriage and she went on to marry someone else. Richard became an embittered recluse and retired from painting in 1798. He went to live with Sarah’s brother in Wells, Somerset. He died a wealthy man in May 1810 in Knowle.

He could never speak and communicated chiefly by gestures and family signs.