A three-quarter-length portrait to the left, wearing the robes and Grand Cross of the Order of Bath. He stands in front of a column and in the background to the left a ship denoting his naval career is shown.

Keith was born at Stirling and first served in the Navy during the Seven Years War, though only commissioned in 1770. Thereafter he fought with distinction, gaining several important victories both in Europe and elsewhere. He made his name by capturing Charleston, South Carolina, in the spring of 1780 and, still a captain, helped take Toulon in 1793 at the start of the French Revolutionary War. He became a rear-admiral in 1794, took the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch in 1795, Ceylon in 1796 and received a barony in 1797. Keith took part in the British campaigns that drove Napoleon's French forces out of Egypt and was an often disapproving commander-in-chief over Nelson in the Mediterranean at the time of the latter's Neapolitan involvements, after the Battle of the Nile. He was promoted to Admiral in 1801 and in 1803 took command in the North Sea, thereafter being largely concerned in home defence against Napoleon's threatened invasion. In 1812 he took over the Channel fleet and, though largely commanding from ashore, prevented the escape of Napoleon from France after Waterloo. As the Prince Regent's representative, he received Napoleon's final surrender and supervised the deposed French Emperor's removal to his last exile on St. Helena in 1815. He was elevated to Viscount in 1814.

Sanders (1774-1846) - often spelt 'Saunders' and confused with the English painter George Lethbridge Saunders (1807-63) - was a Scottish artist better known as a miniaturist, but who painted full-scale oil portraits for a period from 1812, many being of distinguished sitters and at high prices. Not suprisingly many were distinguished Scots, like Keith. There is a version (or possibly a copy) of this portrait in the United Service Club collection and the head may be based on an earlier one of Keith in uniform, of which there is an 1812 print. The date of this and the United Service Club versions are indicated by the presence of the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, which Keith received in January 1815, having been elevated to Viscount the previous May.