The Prolific Mr. Charles Keene
Keywords:
Charles Keene, Australian print history, illustrationAbstract
This short article provides an overview of the collection of prints, drawings and watercolours by the British artist-illustrator, Charles Samuel Keene (1823-91), held in the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Unrivalled in terms of its size and breadth of content, Benson selects examples from the collection to describe Keene’s career and his place within the nineteenth-century British art world, including his relationship with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The history of the NGV’s acquisition of the collection and its recent digitization are also examined.
References
“Charles Keene’s Drawings.” Spectator, 21 March 1891: 13.
“Dry Point” [William Michael Rossetti]. “The Art of Punch [second notice].” Spectator, 21 Sept. 1861: 1036.
Houfe, Simon. The Work of Charles Samuel Keene. Aldershot & Melbourne: Scolar P, 1995.
Lake, J., ed. Exhibition of the British Art Gallery by the Royal Anglo-Australian Society of Artists, with which is associated the German art gallery and a selection of pictures by Australian artists 1892, Exhibition Building, Melbourne: illustrated catalogue. Melbourne, 1892.
Layard, G. S. The Life and Letters of Charles Samuel Keene. London: Sampson Low, Marsten and Co., 1892.
Lindsay, Lionel. Charles Keene, the Artists’ Artist. London: P. & D. Colnaghi’s, 1934.
NGV website for Charles Keene. Digitisation project headed by Laurie Benson, Curator of International Art, NGV, funded by the Joe White Bequest, and supported by the NGV: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/artist/3621/
