Born Keith Hall, Inverurie; died Edinburgh 11 May. Painter in oil and watercolour; landscape and coastal scenes; also occasional portraits. Eldest son of a tea and spirit merchant. In the late 1820s, when still very young, moved with his family into Aberdeen. Shortly afterwards he was seriously injured in a street accident, the injuries disabling him for the rest of his life. Although largely self taught, he did receive some instruction from James Giles. Began earning his living as an artist by painting animals and portraits. In the 1860s he turned increasingly to seascapes and coastal scenes, especially at dawn and sunset. He was always outside the mainstream of academic painting. As a man he was enormously popular, renowned for his wit. His first exhibit at the RA in 1854 'On the Road to the Linn of Dee, Braemar Aberdeenshire' was succeeded by 21 further works shown almost annually until 1879. At the RSA he exhibited with similar regularity from 1840 until the year of his death. Fond of bright creamy colours, he painted in both oil and watercolour with clearly delineated detail. His oil paintings tended to be large and his watercolours small, the latter often being signed with a monogram and in sombre tones which sometimes render them hard to identify. 

McKay spoke of his 'dainty but somewhat soft and mellowed brushwork'. The aims of Roeloff and Mollinger in Holland are discernible, though he always remained comparatively subdued and sympathetic in his treatment. His reputation suffered comparative neglect until a retrospective exhibition at Aberdeen AG in 1979 helped to reinstate his deserved position as an important artist. He was not himself a sailor, and the coastal scenery is generally viewed from the land with as much attention to the coastline as to the sea itself. Ranks alongside Joseph Farquharson and James Giles as arguably the three finest portrayers of Deeside landscape. 

Elected ARSA 1869, the year he moved to Edinburgh, RSW 1878, RSA 1879. Exhibited RA (21) 1854-1879, RSA (195) 1840-1880, RSW & GI (54). Represented in NGS (50, Aberdeen AG.

This work was exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1870 No. 339