DANIEL GARDNER (BRITISH, 1750-1805)

Half length portrait of Admiral Keppel in undress uniform, circa 1780

Pastel and bodycolour

9 x 7in. (23 x 18cm.), oval

Augustus Keppel (1725-86) second son of the 2nd Earl of Albermarle. Educated briefly at Westminster, he went to sea aged ten and already had five years afloat when he was appointed to serve with Lord Anson aboard the Centurion (60) with whom he circumnavigated the globe in 1740. Latterly He served under Hawke in the Seven Years' War (1756-63), captured Gorée in 1758, commanded the Torbay (74) at the battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759, and the Valiant (74) in the capture of Belleisle in 1761, and was second-in-command at the capture of Havana in 1762. In 1778, as commander-in-chief of the grand fleet, he encountered the French fleet off Ushant, but the French escaped. He was tried by court martial for neglect of duty, but was acquitted. He became First Lord of the Admiralty in 1782-83 and was raised to the peerage as 1st Viscount Keppel at the same time. He supported the unpopular Fox-North coalition ministry and with its fall in 1783 he effectively disappeared from public view, dying unmarried on 2nd October, 1886.