CHARLES SAMUEL KEENE
(1823-1891)
Self-Portrait as a Young Man wearing a Fez
Provenance
Private Collection,UK
Exhibited
The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, (Los Angeles), Luminous Paper: British Watercolours and Drawings, 2011
The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, (Los Angeles), Images of the Artist, 2012
The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, (Los Angeles), Hatched! Creating Form with Line, 2014
This newly-discovered self portrait drawing shows Keene as a young man wearing a fez which he used to wear in his studio. There is a well-known oil sketch of Keene in his fez at his easel in Tate Britain (oil on board, 28 x 19cm, No.3644).
Charles Keene's self-portrait is deeply shadowed on one side and brightly illuminated on the other. The young artist's face emerges from a network of meticulous, at times extremely dense lines known as "hatching"—a technique he developed in the etchings he made during his concurrent apprenticeship to two book illustrators. Keene was primarily known for his illustrations in satirical journals such as Punch. He never exhibited this self-portrait, which looks unfinished by the standards of his day.
Related artworks
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SIR PETER LELY Portrait of a Man, possibly a Self-PortraitBlack chalk, heightened with white and touches of red, on brown paper 10 x 7 inches (25.5 x 17.8 cm) Sold in Association with Day & Faber LtdAcquired by a Private Collector, USA -
SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES Portrait of Augusta JonesRed chalk 46 x 40.5 cmAcquired by a Private Collector, USA