SIR

See also:

• JOSEPH
• JOSEPH, COMTE DE (1785-1870)
• JOSEPH, FATHER (FRANCOIS LECLERC DU TREMBLAY) (1577-1638)

JOSEPH

See also:

• NOEL, RODEN BERKELEY WRIOTHESLEY (1834-1894)

NOEL

See also:

• PATON, JOHN BROWN (1830- )
• SIR JOSEPH NOEL PATON (1821-1901)

PATON (1821-1901)  , British painter, was born, on the 13th of December 1821, in Woolers Alley, Dunfermline, where his father, a fellow of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries, carried on the trade of a damask manufacturer . He showed strong artistic inclinations in early childhood, but had no regular art training, except a brief period ofstudy in the Royal Academy School in 1843 . He gained a prize of £200 in the first Westminster Hall competition, in 1845, for his cartoon " The Spirit of Religion," and in the following year he exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy his " Quarrel of Oberon and Titania." A companion fairy picture, " The Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania " went to Westminster Hall in 1847, and for it and his picture of " Christ bearing the Cross " he was awarded a prize of £300 by the Fine Arts Commissioners . The two Oberon pictures are in the National Gallery of Scotland, where they have long been a centre of attraction . His first exhibited picture, " Ruth Gleaning," appeared at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1844 . He began to contribute to the Royal Academy of London in 1856 . Throughout his career his preference was for allegorical, fairy and religious subjects . Among his most famous pictures are " The Pursuit of Pleasure " (1855), Mors Janua Vitae " (1866), " Oskold and the Elle-maids " (1874), and " In Die Malo " (1882) . Sir Noel Paton also produced a certain amount of sculpture, more notable for design than for searching execution . He was elected an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1847, and a full member in 1850; he was appointed Queen's Limner for Scotland in 1866, and received knighthood in 1867 . In 1878 the University of Edinburgh conferred upon him the degree of LL.D . He was a poet of distinct merit, as his Poems by a Painter (1861) and Spindrift (1867) pleasantly exemplified .

He was also well known as an

antiquary, his hobby, indeed, being the collection of arms and armour . Sir Noel died in Edinburgh on the 26th of December 1901 . His eldest son, Diarmid Noel Paton (b . 1859), became regius professor of physiology in Glasgow in 1906; and another son, Frederick Noel Paton (b . 1861), became in 1905 director of commercial intelligence to the government of India .