Pencil portrait of Charles Keene

Alfred William Cooper

Pencil

8 x 5½ inches

This drawing commemorates the friendship circle that Cooper enjoyed in the company of Charles Keene, Myles Birket Foster, Edmund Evans and others active as book and magazine illustrators in the 1850s and 60s. Signed and date ‘Xmas 1866’, it represents Keene’s dressing up in medieval costume (Chaucer?) for one of the parties held at ‘The Hill’, Birket Foster’s house in Surrey. Capturing a moment of reflection, its sketchy lines embody the subject’s slightly gauche poster. Reproduced with permission of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

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Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke.

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