Keeney, Barnaby Conrad (1914-1980)
Role: 1955-1966Dates: Twelfth President
Portrait Location: Library Annex
Artist: Feldman, Walter S. ()
Portrait Date: 1961
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 4
Framed Dimensions:
Brown Portrait Number: 201
Brown Historical Property Number: 2280
Barnaby Keeney earned a doctorate in history from Harvard in 1939, but his academic career was interrupted by World War II when he decided to enlist in the army after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. He served in an intelligence unit and finished the war with the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, and the Silver Star. Keeney came to Brown in 1946 as an assistant professor of medieval history, becoming Dean of the Graduate School in 1949. In 1951 he took a leave of absence to work for the Central Intelligence Agency. Shortly after returning to Brown in 1953, he was named Dean of the College. Two years later he was named President. Keeney's presidency was marked by tremendous growth in both the physical plant of the campus and the graduate program. Over a dozen major facilities were built or acquired, including the Rockefeller Library, three laboratories, and Keeney Quad. Keeney was strongly committed to graduate education, and graduate enrollment tripled during his eleven-year tenure as president. He initiated plans for a medical school and the Master in Medical Science degree in 1963. Keeney's resignation in 1966 spared his successful presidency the turmoil of student unrest that would challenge his successors.
The artist of this colorful and very personal portrait from 1961 is Walter S. Feldman. Feldman was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1925 and entered Yale University in 1942. He took a leave from the University to join the U.S. army, where he served in Europe from 1943-46 in the Infantry. In 1951 Feldman received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale. At first he continued to work at Yale as an instructor of painting but in 1953 he was interviewed by President Henry Wriston of Brown University and thereafter by Barnaby C. Keeney for a position as an assistant professor of Art. Feldman was given the job, was promoted to Associate Professor and in 1961 became Professor. His 50th anniversary at Brown was celebrated in 2003.
During the job interview Keeney and Feldman discovered that they had a lot in common through their service in WWII. The interview was the beginning of a long friendship. Looking back on his portrait of Keeney in 2005, Feldman remarked that he wanted to paint Keeney not only as the outstanding 12th President of Brown but as a friend with many talents and unique personal qualities, and with a history that included the horrors and fears of the Second World War. Therefore he chose to portray President Keeney with an orange/reddish glow, and gave a burning feeling to the portrait in reference to their shared history and experiences during the War. The allusion to fire is accompanied with a facial expression through which Feldman wanted to stress the humor and comradeship he found in Keeney. For a more traditional academic portrait of President Keeney see John Lavalle's portrait (BP 183).