Fig 12 (right) Waterloo Place, SWI (date obscured). An example of the spontaneity and freedom that began to permeate Michael’s drawings around this time under the influence of Charles Keene.
Fig 10 Michael, still extolling the virtues of Keene’s line as he studies his extensive collection, 66 years after first encountering the artist’s work. Photographed by Charles Marsden-Smedley in December 2018.
Fig 13 (below) Michael’s pen and ink work also began to display a more impressionistic quality, as in this charming study of Beaurepaire House, near Basingstoke, which again was made into a Christmas card.
Fig 11 A study by Charles Keene for his painting The Complaint which appeared in Punch, 12th August, 1865 (pen and brown ink over pencil, 13.3 x 18.7 cm).
Two other influences on Michael the artist emerged during the 1950s. One was his fondness for cycling – something that stayed with him throughout his career. He once told me: ‘I would cycle round London sketching buildings.’ The other was the artist Charles Keene, of whom Michael is a passionate admirer: ‘In 1952 I went to an exhibition of his in St James’s,’ he said. ‘I became hooked on Keene. His line was loose and charming and absolutely spot-on.’ I have researched this a little and I found that there was an exhibition in November 1952 – 142 Wine Tasting III
The Lowinsky Collection of Drawings by Charles Keene (1823–1891) – which may well have been the one that the 25-year old Michael bicycled to St James’s to see. It was a pivotal moment in Michael’s artistic development. Looking at his work, you feel it released Michael from the strictures of architectural drawings and allowed his pen to flow more freely – or, to use his words, ‘more loosely’. I did ask Michael to name other artists that he felt had influenced him but I couldn’t get him off Keene. I did try and drop the name of Edward Ardizzone, who like Michael was a master of line, but all he said was that he knew him, and ‘very good company he was’. Keene himself bore an uncanny likeness to Charles Dickens (Fig 9), which is appropriate because what Dickens left to us in his descripIII Wine Tasting 143
