(1714 - 74), painter; studied at the St Martin's Lane Academy 1754; d. Bologna.
1761 - 74 Naples (1761), Ischia (1765), Bologna (1765 - d. 12 Jan. 1774)
Keeble's portrait of the musician Castruccio Bonamici (d. 1761) is said to have been painted in Naples (priv. coll., Naples, 1954).1 Keeble was in Ischia in 1765, then in Bologna where he lived in the house of Domenico Gandolfi and practised as a portrait painter. His portrait of Francesco Zanotti remains in Bologna University, and he also painted the marchesa Marascachi, the conte Massimiliano Gini and other ladies 'e virtuose di Music'. But his best known work, according to Moretti, was the portrait of Cardinal Vincenzo Malvezzi (priv. coll., Bologna, 1948), which, however, was based on Rigaud's portrait of Bossuet in reverse.
Keeble was himself an accomplished violinist and, apparently, a ladies' man; one of his several liaisons was with the musician Margharita Zibetti, 'the Vistoletta'. He was elected to the Accademia Clementina on 11 June 1770. He died in Bologna in straitened circumstances on 12 January 1774 and was buried there. His bust in clay was said to have been made by J.F. Nollekens.2 James Barry attributed his own election to the Accademia Clementina 'to the obliging dispositions of two friends of mine here, Mr Keable and Signor Bianconi'.3
1. Mostra del Ritratto Storico Napoletano, exh. cat., Naples [1954], 60 - 1. 2. See G. Zucchini, Giornale d'Emilia, 22 Feb. 1948; notes by H.G. Belsey. 3. Barry, Works, 1:216.