KEENE, CHARLES SAMUEL English black-and-white artist, the son of Samuel Browne Keene, a solici tor, was born at Hornsey on Aug. 1o. His earliest known design is the frontispiece, signed "Chas. Keene," to The Adventures of Dick Boldhero, etc. In Dec. 1851 he made his first appear ance in Punch and, after nine years of steady work, was called to a seat at the famous table. It was during this period of proba tion that he first gave evidence of those transcendent qualities which make his work at once the joy and despair of his brother craftsmen. On the starting of Once a Week, in 1859, Keene's services were requisitioned, his most notable series in this periodi cal being the illustrations to Charles Reade's A Good Fight (after wards rechristened The Cloister and the Hearth) and to George Meredith's Evan Harrington. There is a quality of convention ality in the earlier of these which later disappears. In 1864 John Leech died, and Keene's work in Punch thenceforward found wider opportunities. In 1872 Keene made the acquaintance of Joseph Crawhall, who had been in the habit for many years of jotting down any humourous incidents he might hear of or ob serve, illustrating them at leisure for his own amusement. These were placed unreservedly at Keene's disposal, and to their inspira tion we owe at least 250 of his most successful drawings in the last 20 years of his connection with Punch. A list of more than
200 of these subjects is given at the end of The Life and Letters of Charles Keene of "Punch." In 1881 a volume of his Punch drawings was published by Bradbury and Agnew, with the title Our People. He died on Jan. 4, 1891.
See G. S. Layard, Life and Letters of Charles Keene of "Punch"; The Work of Charles Keene, with an introduction and notes by Joseph Pennell, and a bibliography by W. H. Chesson. (G. S. L.; X.) KEENE, LAURA (c. 182o-1873), Anglo-American actress and manager, whose real name was Mary Moss, was born in England. In 1851, in London, she was playing Pauline in The Lady of Lyons. She made her first appearance in New York Sept. 20, 1852, on her way to Australia. She returned in 1855, and till 1863 managed Laura Keene's theatre, in which was produced, in 1858, Our American Cousin. It was her company that was playing at Ford's theatre, Washington, on the night of Lincoln's assassination. Miss Keene was a successful melo dramatic actress, and an admirable manager. She died at Mont clair (N.J.) Nov. 4, See John Creahan, Life of Laura Keene (1891).