Daniel O'Keeffe, Miniature Painter
(b. 1740,d. 1787)
Miniature Painter
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
Was born in Dublin in 1740; his father was a native or King's County, and his mother, an O'Connor, was from Wexford. He was trained in the Dublin Society's Drawing School, where he won several prizes, and for a time was employed by Samuel Dixon (q.v.), of Capel Street, in colouring Dixon's basso-relievo prints of birds and flowers. In 1762 he was established as a miniature painter in Temple Bar. A few years afterwards he went to London and commenced to exhibit miniatures with the Free Society in 1769 and in the Royal Academy in 1771. His name appears as a regular exhibitor down to 1786. Both in Dublin and London he was known as Daniel "Keeffe" until 1775, when he added the "O" to his name. "Few of us old Irish," says his brother John in his "Recollections," "ventured to sport our O's at that period." For a time, probably about 1776, he was at Bath. He died of consumption at his lodgings in Brompton on 22nd June, 1787, aged 47. His brother, John O'Keeffe, describes him as "tall and thin, very fair and delicately florid, blue eyes, his hair light."
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