Fishing Scene

Charles Samuel Keene · c. 1884

Medium

Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash and touches of white gouache, on cream wove paper, laid down on ivory wove card

Original size

14.7 × 20.2 cm (5 13/16 × 8 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Realism

Fishing Scene carries the quiet, unhurried mood that Charles Samuel Keene captured better than almost any of his contemporaries — figures absorbed in their task, the world reduced to water, line, and patience. Keene spent over three decades as the principal illustrator for Punch, and that background gave him an unrivalled economy of line. Here he works in pen and brown ink with layered washes and flecks of white gouache, building depth through restraint rather than elaboration. The result is something that feels lived-in rather than composed — less a scene observed than one remembered. Degas counted Keene among the draughtsmen he most admired, and it is easy to see why: there is a looseness in the handling that reads as effortless but reflects enormous discipline. The touches of gouache catch the light the way water does — briefly, unexpectedly. The original, held in the Art Institute of Chicago, is a work on paper — intimate in scale and delicate in surface. Translating it into oil on canvas requires real sensitivity, and our artists approach that challenge by preserving Keene's tonal warmth and the suggestive quality of his marks rather than tightening them into something the original never was.