Identity:

Charles Samuel Keene was an etcher, cartoonist and illustrator.

Life:

Keene, who began his career apprenticed to an architect and then a wood-engraver, studied at the Clipstone Street Art Society. He worked as an illustrator for the Illustrated London News, Once A Week and Punch, producing humorous drawings, satirising contemporary social life. Pennell described Keene as 'the greatest English artist since Hogarth'.

Keene also illustrated books, for example, F. C. Burnand's Tracks for Tourists (1864) and Reade's The Cloister and the Hearth. He was a member of the Langham Sketching Club and in 1881 he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. Like JW, he was also a member of The Arts Club from 1863 until 1890. In 1891 an exhibition of 251 of his works were exhibited at the Fine Art Society. His Self-Portrait was bought by the Chantrey Bequest in 1922.

JW's closely observed Thames Set, showing life at the docks of Rotherhithe and Wapping, are comparable to the urban drawings of Keene. JW met Keene after 1859 through their membership in the Junior Etching Club. In 1864 when C. A. Howell appears to have needed an illustrator, JW recommended Keene (#02788). In 1867 Keene helped JW pay for the funeral expenses of James Reeves Traer, a partner in F. S. Haden's medical practice whom JW felt had been badly treated (#05854). In the Whistler v. Ruskin trial in 1878 JW proposed to subpoena Keene but Keene declined to give evidence.

However, Keene was a member of the Society of British Artists when JW was President from 1886, and he was one of those who resigned in support of JW in 1888. In 1889 he was among those proposed invitees to a dinner organised by W. C. Symons to congratulate JW on becoming an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Munich, a dinner which was to be held at the Criterion in Piccadilly on 1 May (#05636).

In July 1891, following the death of Keene, G. S. Layard, Keene's biographer, wrote to JW, asking for his recollections of the artist, knowing the 'high appreciation' Keene had for JW (#02492).

Bibliography:

Layard, G. S., The Life and Letters of Charles Samuel Keene, London, 1892; Records of The Arts Club, London; Pennell, Joseph, The Work of Charles Keene, London, 1897; Pennell, J., Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen, London, n.d.; Wood, Christopher, Dictionary of Victorian Painters, Woodbridge, 1971; Johnson, J., and A. Gruetzner, Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940, Woodbridge, 1980; Johnson, Lewis, 'Charles Keene' The Grove Dictionary of Art Online, ed. L. Macy, http://www.groveart.com (accessed 6 December 2002).