Self-Portrait
Charles Keeneabout 1845
The J. Paul Getty Museum
Los Angeles, United States
Made when Charles Keene was only about 20 years old, this powerful and engaging self-portrait speaks volumes for his draftsmanship. Based on careful observation of detail and a subtle rendering of light and shade, it captures the artist close-up wearing a hat, perhaps a fez. The quality of Keene's penwork in brown ink is extraordinary, with insistent hatching and cross-hatching, and stippled effects in areas of the cheek. At about this time, when Keene was apprenticed to the book-illustrators Whymper Brothers, he made a number of etchings - "scratching on copper" as he called it - and the influence of this technique is apparent here in the precise draftsmanship.
- Title: Self-Portrait
- Creator: Charles Samuel Keene
- Date Created: about 1845
- Location Created: England
- Physical Dimensions: 24.1 × 27.9 cm (9 1/2 × 11 in.)
- Type: Drawing
- External Link: Find out more about this object on the Museum website.
- Medium: Pen and brown ink over black chalk
- Terms of Use: Open Content
- Number: 2009.95
- Culture: British
- Credit Line: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
- Creator Display Name: Charles Samuel Keene (English, 1823 - 1891)
- Classification: Drawings (Visual Works)
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