Henry Keen’s Dorian Gray
Returning to the golden boy again this week with an illustrated edition of Wilde’s novel from 1925. The publisher was Aubrey Beardsley’s old employer, John Lane, and the illustrator was Henry Keen, an artist of singular and dismaying obscurity. Perhaps some of my knowledgeable commenters can provide more information. Keen’s 12 plates look like lithographs but the book also featured ink embellishments and a splendid sunflower/butterfly design on the boards and slipcase.
Dorian Goes Upstairs to the Locked Room Where His Portrait is Kept.
Dorian Gray Lies Dead with a Knife in His Heart.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The illustrators archive
Previously on { feuilleton }
• The real Basil Hallwards
• Dallamano’s Dorian Gray
• Oscar Wilde playing cards
• Matthew Bourne’s Dorian Gray
• John Osborne’s Dorian Gray
• Dorian Gray revisited
• The Picture of Dorian Gray I & II
3 comments or trackbacks
#1 posted by Callum
Jun 5th, 2009
Hi John.
Can’t help much but I can tell you that he also illustrated Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi (Bodley Head, 1930), Richard Garnett’s Twilight of the Gods (Dodd Mead & Co., 1924), and Voltaire’s Zadig and Other Romances (John Lane, 1926). These are not all first editions and I don’t know if Keen illustrated earlier ones.
Regards
Callum
#2 posted by John
Jun 5th, 2009
Thanks Callum. I noticed a tiny picture of Duchess on a bookseller’s page but didn’t know about the others. Odd that he’s so undocumented working for the Bodley Head, you’d think there’d be more known about him.
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