New-York tribune., 1898-01-30

| privcs his argument of half its force Yet. when
all the bad taste that disigures the text or ms
volume has been accounted for the reader ieels
some gratitude to the maker Of such monument
to an artist not great but undeniably gIited. IL
is belated. like most Monuments but that Noe'
not make 1t any the less welcome. we must re-
joice that 1T last the merits OF Charles he"he
have been adequately celebrated. In ms lie
time he knew little appreciation. lie got IL
from a few friends. but the general pubic knew
him not and his professional contemporaries
showed lamentabe Indifference to his YORK
1T was all very WELL" says Mr.. Penneii' iof
Lord Leighton to utter plattudes after MS
tKeenes) death all very well to revive the iese"o
that he had actually been invited to an Acai-
emy dinner But if there is any history 10 pe
written about the Royal Academy Of Arts during
the last thirty years il will be to record that
James McNe Whistler. Dante Gabriel Rossetti
and Charles Koene did not belong to ia scan
dal no whitewashing by Lord Mayors. Pres'-
dents and Prime Ministers can remove keene
personality survives in Mr. Layard's sympathetic
biography and few other little-known records
as that Of a retiring and even eccentric man. lie
loved music. he loved the companlonship oi doSs
he lived contcnted with his work. over "nlch
he smoked many pipes and talked very httic
Mr. Pennell notes in passing that keene hardly
ever rode in a hanson and that he often cooked
his own dinner. Trifing details Of this sort go
to make up his portrait. When Beraldi wanted
some data to insert in his great catalogue the
shy Englishman wrote to the friend who de-
manded them: AS to writing my life story. God
bless you. sir. I've none to tell The
most stirring incid dants in my life are 4 Visit
to the dentist date forgotten and certain ex-
perences Of the last few days. Try and choke
the French biographer off" The French biog-
rapher may well have been choked off on all
points save those Of strictly artistic significance
What would ne have made Of Keene at Dunwich,
where he used to go out upon the beach with his
bagpipes about 10 p m. when the populace
we're asleep. and skrl away by the sad sea
waves for an hour or So? That hardly the
guise in which a keen satirist and busy
Graughtsman could have been understood by
Gallo critic. Yet there are drawings reproduced
in this volIrne-which. by the way. is more a
collection Of reproductions than 1t is formal
work Of criicsm-in which the watchful student
will discern the good fruits Of those curious
nocturnal episodes keene would never have
taken his bagppes down to the seas edge II he
had not cared for nature.
Look at the pen sketch If a row Of brches. with
a slopng field beyond and church tower filling
in the distance. That is a study rejecting close
acquaintance with the English countryside. and
the same atmo sphere Of fresh reality is present
in the Backgrounds of all of Keene's drawings.
whether they be OF urban scenes or broad moors
and meadows He based his art on nature.
Hence it possesses vitality not always pres
ent in the pictorial work characteristic OF
Punch" We do not mean to say that neither
ID,ech nor Du Maurier cared for the living model.
nor for landscape and the other facts of nature.
Both men sought veracity and often found it.
But Charles keene constantly drew trees. bushes
and landscape forms generally with the in
stinctive feeling for their importance and
character with the stern resolve to preserve their
integrity in even the smallest sketch. which Sug-
gests that the author Of a drawing could with
equal felicity make a painting out Of his ma
terial. This was Keene's distinction to handle
the pen not only with something of the effect
Of brush but to conceive design in the spirit
of a painter. to handle its details with a loving
almost caressng sense Of its artistic values
Mr.. Pernell does well to lay stress upon lis
heros landscape backgrounds. There is a series
ot ten drawings which Keene executed for
Punch in 1866 with view TO satirizng the
adventures Of the city-bred young lady sallying
out into the Highlands with her sketch book
Each composition turns upon some ludicrous ex-
perience Of Miss Lavinia Brounjones. and the
eye is naturally concentrated upon that audacious
young ladys person. but the set presents also
some vivid and varied studies Of Scottish land
scape. The thatched cottage placed amid the
frs. the ragged farmyard. the heathery stretches
OF hillside. the massive oak against which Miss