Geikie, Walter

Born at Edinburgh; deafened at age 2 by "brain fever" or meningitis. At first tutored at home by his father, following Joseph Watson's book The Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, he later became a student of John Braidwood (q.v.) in Edinburgh. Studied drawing privately before enrolling in the Trustee's Academy in Edinburgh for art training. In 1831, became an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy and in 1834, a Member. Died of typhus fever in Edinburgh, just before his intended marriage, and is buried in Greyfriar's Church there, though his grave did not get a memorial marker until 1996. Some sources say Geikie was color-blind, and critics generally consider his portraits to be more successful than his landscapes. Some sources give his death date as August 2, 1837, but August 1 is cited by Geikie's own brother, Archibald, and by Geikie's first biographer in 1838. A short modern book biography is Walter Geikie, 1795-1837 by Raymond Lee (1996).