For the Third Time of Asking

Charles Samuel Keene · 1870/91

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

21 × 18 cm (8 5/16 × 7 1/8 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Realism

"For the Third Time of Asking" captures the dry wit and observational precision that defined Charles Samuel Keene's portrait of Victorian everyday life — a fleeting social exchange rendered with extraordinary economy of line and a knowing sense of timing. Keene spent nearly four decades as one of Punch magazine's most distinctive illustrators, developing a style rooted in meticulous draughtsmanship and an acute eye for character. Working primarily in pen and ink, he built texture and depth through dense hatching, and this piece shows that mastery fully realised — the brown wash and delicate white gouache adding warmth and atmosphere to what might otherwise be a purely graphic exercise. His figures carry a lived-in authenticity that sets him apart sharply from more sentimental contemporaries. Edgar Degas, not a man given to easy praise, was an outspoken admirer of Keene's work, reportedly acquiring examples of his drawings and citing him as a direct influence on his own approach to figure drawing. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates this intimate, intricately linear work into a medium that honours its tonal richness and quiet humanity — bringing the mood and careful observation of the original to life with the warmth and permanence that only oil on canvas can provide.