Charles Keeping (1924-1988) was an English illustrator, children’s book author/illustrator and printmaker. As well as his own books, such as Black Dolly, Richard, and Shaun and the Cart-Horse, Keeping created illustrations for many other authors. For example; The God Beneath the Sea, written by Edward Blishen and Leon Garfield, and many of Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical fiction titles for children. He illustrated the complete works of Charles Dickens for the Folio Society and provided the artwork for Kevin Crossley-Holland’s The Wildman and his retelling of Beowulf.
Charles Keeping was multi-award winning. He was the recipient of two Kate Greenaway Medals (for his own book Charley, Charlotte and the Golden Canary (1967) and the 1981 edition of Alfred Noyes’s poem The Highwayman. In addition, he was a Greenaway Medal runner-up on at least another three occasions. For the 50th anniversary of the Medal (in 2005), the selection panel picked his edition of The Highwayman as one of the top ten winning works.
His illustrations for The God Beneath the Sea, by Leon Garfield and Edward Blishen won the 1970 Carnegie Medal for children’s literature. In 1974, he was a runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.
His prints can be found in many important collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum. There are books by and one about Keeping available on AbeBooks and Amazon.
Additional image credits:
Daily Art Magazine | Invaluable | Spitalfields Life | The Keeping Gallery