Charles William James Keeping (22 September 1924 - 16 May 1988) was a British illustrator, children's book author and lithographer. He first came to prominence with his illustrations for Rosemary Sutcliff's historical novels for children, and he created more than twenty picture books. He won the Kate Greenaway Medal for outstanding work in children's illustration twice: for Charley, Charlotte and the Golden Canary in 1967, and for an illustrated edition of Alfred Noyes's poem The Highwayman in 1981. He illustrated The God Beneath the Sea, by Leon Garfield and Edward Blishen, which won the Carnegie Medal for children's literature in 1970. He also illustrated the complete works of Charles Dickens for the Folio Society. September 22 is the 265th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (266th in leap years). ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (137th in leap years). ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... An illustrator is a graphic artist who specializes in enhancing written text by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text. ... Basic Characteristics There is some debate as to what constitutes childrens literature. ... Lithography is a method for printing on a smooth surface, as well as a method of manufacturing semiconductor and MEMS devices. ... Rosemary Sutcliff (1920-1992) was a British novelist, best known as a writer of childrens historical fiction. ... A historical novel is a novel in which the story is set among historical events, or more generally, in which the time of the action predates the lifetime of the author. ... A picture book is a popular form of illustrated literature—more precisely, a book with pictures in it—popularized in the 20th century Western world. ... The Kate Greenaway Medal was established in the UK in 1955 in honour of the childrens illustrator, Kate Greenaway. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... Alfred Noyes (1880 - 1958) was an English poet. ... The Highwayman is a poem by Alfred Noyes published in 1906. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Leon Garfield, born 14 July 1921 in Brighton, Sussex, England, died 2 June 1996, was a writer of fiction best known for his historical novels for children. ... The Carnegie Medal in Literature was established in the UK in 1936 in honour of Andrew Carnegie. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... Dickens redirects here. ... The Luttrell Psalter (2006) Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass (1962) The Wind in the Willows (2006) The Folio Society, founded in 1947, is based on the fringes of Bloomsbury, London. ...

Charles Keeping (1967) Charley, Charlotte and the Golden Canary

His lithographs have been exhibited in London, Italy, Austria and the U.S.A., including at the International Exhibition of Lithography in Cincinnati in 1958. He has prints in many collections, including at the Victoria and Albert Museum. This image is a book cover. ... This image is a book cover. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England and is the most populous city in the European Union. ... The United States of America — also referred to as the United States, the U.S.A., the U.S., America, the States, or (archaically) Columbia—is a federal republic of 50 states located primarily in central North America (with the exception of two states: Alaska and Hawaii). ... Cincinnati, Ohio viewed from the SW, across the Ohio River from Kentucky. ... 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Cromwell Road entrance to the Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum viewed from Thurloe Square The main interior courtyard of the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2004. ...

Early life

Richard Potts (1968), Ghost in the Mine, illustrated by Charles Keeping

Charles Keeping was born and grew up in Lambeth, London, in a terraced house that housed three generations. He lived in an inner city environment of street markets and working horses that would inform his work his entire life. Charles and his elder sister, Grace, drew and made up stories from an early age, on surplus newsstand placards brought home by their father, Charles Keeping senior, who distributed newspapers to shops and newsstands in the area and boxed under the name Charlie Clarke. This image is a book cover. ... This image is a book cover. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Lambeth is a place in the London Borough of Lambeth. ... London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England and is the most populous city in the European Union. ...

Young Charles was interested in little but drawing and horses, and did poorly at school. He left at 14. The Second World War broke out the following year, and when he turned 18 in 1942 he was called up and joined the Royal Navy as a wireless operator. He returned to civvy street in 1946 with a profound depression and a belief that a head wound he had sustained had disfigured him on the inside as well as (temporarily) on the outside, and would cause him to turn evil like Dr Jekyll becoming Mr Hyde. He received treatment, was institutionalised for a time, and made a full recovery, but perhaps his sympathetic visual treatments of Frankenstein's monster and Grendel, the monster from Beowulf, owe something to this period of his life. Drawing is a means of making an image, using any of a wide variety of tools and techniques. ... horse, see Horse (disambiguation). ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... This article is about the year. ... The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the senior service of the British armed services being the oldest of its three branches. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Clinical depression is a state of sadness, melancholia or despair that has advanced to the point of being disruptive to an individuals social functioning and/or activities of daily living. ... Book covers for Frankenstein have taken many forms over the years which emphasize different themes of the novel such as gothic horror, science fiction and romanticism. ... Grendel is one of three antagonists (along with Grendels Mother and the dragon) in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf (c. ... The first page of Beowulf This article is about the epic poem. ...

Charles Keeping (1970), Through the Window

He applied for a grant to study art at Regent Street Polytechnic, but for several years was turned down, so he read meters for a gas company during the day and took life drawing classes in the evening. He also worked as a life model, and on one such occasion in 1949 his demonstration of the functions of the muscles of the back attracted the eye of a student called Renate Meyer, who went on to marry him in 1952. Download high resolution version (800x624, 215 KB) This work is copyrighted. ... Download high resolution version (800x624, 215 KB) This work is copyrighted. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... Venus de Milo exhibited in the Louvre museum, France. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Keeping did get into Regent Street Poly, where he was taught by well-known illustrators Nigel Lambourne and Stuart Tresilian. He took the two year Intermediate Examination in six months before specialising in illustration and lithography. An illustration of a character from a story; also, an illustration of illustrations An Illustration is a visualisation such as drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that stresses subject more than form. ... Negative litography stone and positive print of a map of Munich Lithography is a method for printing on a smooth surface. ...

Published work

His first published work was a comic strip in a newspaper, the Daily Herald, which he drew for four years, beginning in 1952. He didn't much enjoy it, not seeing himself as a cartoonist, but despite this he also drew cartoons for the Jewish Chronicle, was political cartoonist for the Middle Eastern Review for a time, and later contributed to Punch magazine. This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... A cartoonist at work. ... Cartoons started in the 1930s and 40s. ... The Jewish Telegraph is a Jewish Newspaper in Britain. ... An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is a artist who draws cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary. ... Punch was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire published from 1841 to 1992 and from 1996 to 2002. ...

Rosemary Sutcliff (1976), Blood Feud, book jacket by Charles Keeping

His first book was a humorous health-promotion book called Why Die of Heart Disease? in 1953, and he illustrated a number of educational textbooks, but his breakthrough came in 1957 when he illustrated Rosemary Sutcliff's historical children's novel The Silver Branch, which he would later refer to as his "first book". His drawings were vigorous and played with the conventions of size and placement within the text, and he would go on to illustrate many more children's novels by Sutcliff, Henry Treece, Charles Kingsley, Alan Garner, Geoffrey Trease, Charles Causley, Kevin Crossley-Holland and many others. Leon Garfield and Edward Blishen's retelling of Greek myths, The God Beneath the Sea, which Keeping illustrated in 1970, won the Carnegie Medal for that year. This image is a book cover. ... This image is a book cover. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1976 calendar). ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1953 calendar). ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Rosemary Sutcliff (1920-1992) was a British novelist, best known as a writer of childrens historical fiction. ... The Silver Branch is a historical adventure novel for children written by Rosemary Sutcliff and published in 1957, with illustrations by Charles Keeping. ... Henry Treece (December 1911 – June 10, 1966) was a British poet and writer, who worked also as a teacher, actor, and editor. ... Charles Kingsley (July 12, 1819 - January 23, 1875) was an English novelist, particularly associated with the West Country. ... Alan Garner (born Congleton October 17, 1934) is an English writer whose work is firmly rooted in his local Cheshire. ... Geoffrey Trease (1909-1998), was a prolific writer, publishing over 110 books between 1934 (Bows Against the Barons) and 1997 (Cloak for a Spy). ... Charles Causley (August 24, 1917 – November 4, 2003) was a Cornish poet and writer. ... Kevin Crossley-Holland (born 1941) is an English childrens author and poet Born in Mursley, North Buckinghamshire, Holland grew up in Whiteleaf, a small village in the Chilterns. ... Leon Garfield, born 14 July 1921 in Brighton, Sussex, England, died 2 June 1996, was a writer of fiction best known for his historical novels for children. ... Greek mythology comprises the collected legends of Greek gods and goddesses and ancient heroes and heroines, originally created and spread within an oral-poetic tradition. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... The Carnegie Medal in Literature was established in the UK in 1936 in honour of Andrew Carnegie. ...

He also worked on adult novels, including editions of H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines and Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone. In 1964 he began an association with the Folio Society with an edition of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. He made no secret that he didn't like the book, but nonethess produced twenty-two two-colour lithographs for a publisher who only wanted, and was only prepared to pay for, twelve. The lithographs were sweeping, expressionistic and emotionally charged. He took a similar approach for Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, Victor Hugo's Les Misérables and others. Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe; title page of 1719 newspaper edition A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... H. Rider Haggard, author Sir Henry Rider Haggard (June 22, 1856 – May 14, 1925), born in Kessingland, in Suffolk, England, was a Victorian writer of adventure novels set in locations considered exotic by readers in his native England. ... King Solomons Mines, first published in 1885, was a best-selling novel by the Victorian adventure writer and fabulist, H. Rider Haggard. ... Wilkie Collins William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and writer of short stories. ... The Moonstone (1868) by Wilkie Collins is a 19th-century epistolary novel, generally considered the first detective novel in the English language. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... The Luttrell Psalter (2006) Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass (1962) The Wind in the Willows (2006) The Folio Society, founded in 1947, is based on the fringes of Bloomsbury, London. ... Portrait by her brother Emily Jane Brontë (July 30, 1818 – December 19, 1848) was a British novelist and poet, best remembered for her only novel Wuthering Heights, which is now an acknowledged classic of English literature. ... The front cover of the Penguin Classics edition of Wuthering Heights Wuthering Heights is Emily Brontës only novel. ... Lithography is a method for printing on a smooth surface, as well as a method of manufacturing semiconductor and MEMS devices. ... Erich Remarque, about 1963. ... All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I, about the horrors of that war and also the deep detachment from German civilian life felt by many men returning from the front. ... Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, more commonly known as Horace Walpole, (September 24, 1717 – March 2, 1797), was a politician, writer and forerunner of the Gothic revival. ... The Castle of Otranto is a 1764 novel by Horace Walpole. ... Victor-Marie Hugo. ... Portrait of Cosette by Emile Bayard, from the original edition of Les Misérables (1862) Les Misérables (trans. ...

In 1966 he created his first picture books, Black Dolly and Sean and the Carthorse, both about mistreated working horses. He followed these with the stunning Charley, Charlotte and the Golden Canary in 1967. A modern fairy tale about two children who grow up in the same street, are separated when one family moves to a new tower block, and are reunited thanks to a pet canary, Charley depicts the gradual disappearance of the London of Keeping’s childhood, a theme he would return to regularly. The full colour illustrations are excitingly messy and spontaneous, using intense colour, sponge texturing and wax resist, and won Keeping his first Kate Greenaway Medal. 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... A picture book is a popular form of illustrated literature—more precisely, a book with pictures in it—popularized in the 20th century Western world. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... Binomial name Canaria (Linnaeus, 1758) Originally classed as a subspecies of Serinus, reclassified decades later by Cuvier For other uses, see Canary (disambiguation). ... The Kate Greenaway Medal was established in the UK in 1955 in honour of the childrens illustrator, Kate Greenaway. ...

Kevin Crossley-Holland (1982), Beowulf, illustrated by Charles Keeping

Keeping created 15 full colour picture books for Oxford University Press, and several for other publishers. Joseph's Yard (1969) and Through the Window (1970), two of his finest, were also produced as short films for the BBC's "Storyline" programme. Through the Window in particular showcases many of Keeping's techniques and themes. Told through the eyes of a small boy watching events in the street outside from his bedroom window, the illustrations are full of intense evening light and colour, movement, and even, when a horse-drawn dray rattles across a double-page spread, virtual sound. Other picture books include Richard (1973), about a day in the life of a police horse; Wasteground Circus (1975), on the transient but magical effect on two young boys of the circus coming to town; and Willie's Fire Engine (1980), a romantic, dreamlike tale of a young boy in Edinburgh's dream of being a firefighter. This image is a book cover. ... This image is a book cover. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Oxford University Press (OUP) is a highly-respected publishing house and a department of the University of Oxford in England. ... 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC, sometimes also known as the Beeb or Auntie) is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world, founded in 1922. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... Edinburgh (pronounced ; Dùn Èideann () in Scottish Gaelic) is the second-largest city in Scotland and the countrys capital city. ...

In 1975 Keeping produced perhaps his most personal work, Cockney Ding Dong, a lavish 190-page volume collecting and illustrating the traditional songs of the family singalongs of his childhood. A record of some the songs was also released, featuring the voices of members of Keeping's family. Charles himself sings "They're Moving Father's Grave to Build a Sewer!" 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ...

Beginning in 1978 with The Pickwick Papers, Keeping took on the mammoth task of illustrating the complete works of Charles Dickens for the Folio Society. His knowledge of the vanishing world of industrial London made him the perfect man for the job. The books were originally to be produced by letterpress printing, meaning the illustrations must be pure line drawings with no tones or washes. When they came to be published more modern printing techniques were used which would have allowed Keeping a full range of tones, but he had started with line drawings, so he used the same technique for the entire series, illustrating two books a year until he completed the task with Martin Chuzzlewit in 1988. 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, better known as The Pickwick Papers, is the first novel by Charles Dickens. ... Dickens redirects here. ... The Luttrell Psalter (2006) Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass (1962) The Wind in the Willows (2006) The Folio Society, founded in 1947, is based on the fringes of Bloomsbury, London. ... Letterpress printing is the oldest printing technique, in which a raised surface is inked and then pressed against a smooth substance to obtain an image in reverse. ... Martin Chuzzlewit is a novel by Charles Dickens, considered the last of his picaresque novels, which was written and serialized in 1843-1844. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Oxford University Press created a new format for Keeping - the black and white picture book for older children. Keeping created four books in this format: The Highwayman (1981), illustrating the poem by Alfred Noyes in gruesome detail, for which he won his second Kate Greenaway Medal; Beowulf (1982), adapted from the Anglo-Saxon epic by Kevin Crossley-Holland, in which the illustrations subverted the text with a certain sympathy for the monster; The Wedding Ghost (1985), an original story by Leon Garfield; and The Lady of Shalott (1986), the well known Arthurian poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, all illustrated in evocative line and wash. The influence of Swedish illustrator John Bauer can most clearly be seen on Beowulf. The Highwayman is a poem by Alfred Noyes published in 1906. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Alfred Noyes (1880 - 1958) was an English poet. ... The Kate Greenaway Medal was established in the UK in 1955 in honour of the childrens illustrator, Kate Greenaway. ... The first page of Beowulf This article is about the epic poem. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Anglo-Saxons refers collectively to the groups of Germanic tribes who achieved dominance in southern Britain from the mid-5th century, forming the basis for the modern English nation. ... The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, and one of the major forms of narrative literature. ... Kevin Crossley-Holland (born 1941) is an English childrens author and poet Born in Mursley, North Buckinghamshire, Holland grew up in Whiteleaf, a small village in the Chilterns. ... This article is about the year. ... Leon Garfield, born 14 July 1921 in Brighton, Sussex, England, died 2 June 1996, was a writer of fiction best known for his historical novels for children. ... The Lady of Shalott is a romantic poem by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892). ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... King Arthur is an important figure in the mythology of Britain. ... Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (August 6, 1809 - October 6, 1892) is generally regarded as one of the greatest English poets. ... Tyr and Fenrir, by John Bauer (1911) The Changeling, by John Bauer (1913) Trolls with an abducted princess, by John Bauer (1915) John Bauer (1882–1918) was a Swedish illustrator best known for Bland Tomtar och Troll (Among Elves and Trolls), an annual Christmas book for children published in Sweden. ...

Keeping continued to produce colour picture books from time to time, including Sammy Streetsinger (1984), about a subway busker's rise to fame as a pop star and subsequent return to happy obscurity, and his final book, Adam and Paradise Island, another story of the changing landscape of London, which was published posthumously in 1989. 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Charles Keeping died of a brain tumour on 16 May 1988. His widow, Renate Meyer, runs the Keeping Gallery, displaying his and her own work. May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (137th in leap years). ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

His biographer has commented,

His formidable originality within the picture-book convention may not have been altogether apparent to Keeping himself, which is both a strength and a weakness: the strength that he could communicate with unrivalled emotional intensity - but possibly only with one child in twenty; the concomitant weakness is that there was not a lot he could do to broaden this minority appeal and ensure that his books remained in print over longer periods.

Douglas Martin (1993), Charles Keeping: an illustrator's life

1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ...

Awards

• Kate Greenaway Medal 1967 for Charley, Charlotte and the Golden Canary
• Carnegie Medal 1970 for The God Beneath the Sea (written by Edward Blishen and Leon Garfield)
• Francis Williams Award for Illustration 1972 for Tinker Tailor: Folk Song Tales
• Francis Williams Award for Illustration 1977 for The Wildman (written by Kevin Crossley-Holland)
• Kate Greenaway Medal 1981 for The Highwayman (written by Alfred Noyes)
• Kurt Maschler Award 1987 for Jack the Treacle Eater (written by Charles Causley)
• W H Smith Illustration Award 1988 for Charles Keeping's Classic Tales of the Macabre

The Kate Greenaway Medal was established in the UK in 1955 in honour of the childrens illustrator, Kate Greenaway. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... The Carnegie Medal in Literature was established in the UK in 1936 in honour of Andrew Carnegie. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... Leon Garfield, born 14 July 1921 in Brighton, Sussex, England, died 2 June 1996, was a writer of fiction best known for his historical novels for children. ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1972 calendar). ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... Kevin Crossley-Holland (born 1941) is an English childrens author and poet Born in Mursley, North Buckinghamshire, Holland grew up in Whiteleaf, a small village in the Chilterns. ... The Kate Greenaway Medal was established in the UK in 1955 in honour of the childrens illustrator, Kate Greenaway. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Highwayman is a poem by Alfred Noyes published in 1906. ... Alfred Noyes (1880 - 1958) was an English poet. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Charles Causley (August 24, 1917 – November 4, 2003) was a Cornish poet and writer. ... This article is about the retail chain; for people of that name, see William Henry Smith. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Charles Keeping

• The Keeping Gallery - Selected pictures by Charles Keeping.
• London Borough of Bromley have erected a blue plaque at Keeping's former home
• Frankenstein illustrations by Charles Keeping
• Two lithographs by Charles Keeping
• Extract from Elidor by Alan Garner, including illustrations by Keeping
• Charles Keeping on artnet

Image File history File links Wikiquote-logo-en. ... Wikiquote logo Wikiquote is a sister project of Wikipedia, using the same MediaWiki software. ... A blue plaque showing information about The Spanish Barn at Torre Abbey in Torquay. ...

References

• Douglas Martin (1989), The Telling Line: Essays on Fifteen Contemporary Book Illustrators, Julia MacRae Books
• Douglas Martin (1993), Charles Keeping: an illustrator's life, Julia MacRae Books