Paton, SIR NOEL

Paton, SIR NOEL, painter, was born in Dunfermline, 13th December 1821, and studied for a time at the Royal Academy, London. His cartoon sketch, 'The Spirit of Religion,' gained one of the three premiums at the Westminster Hall competition in 1845. Two years thereafter his oil-picture of 'Christ bearing the Cross' and his 'Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania' jointly gained the prize of £300. The latter and its companion-picture, the 'Quarrel of Oberon and Titania,' are now in the National Gallery at Edinburgh. 'Dante Meditating the Episode of Francesca' was exhibited in Edinburgh in 1852; the 'Dead Lady' in 1854; and 'The Pursuit of Pleasure' in 1855. Scenes from fairyland and from ancient legend, and religious and mystical allegory, painted with grace, tenderness, and something of over-refinement, have made his work familiar, and have been often engraved. Among his other pictures are 'Home from the Crimea'; 'In Memoriam,' a scene from the Indian Mutiny; a series of six picture-illustrations of the 'Dowie Dens o' Yarrow'; 'Luther at Erfurt'; 'The Fairy Raid'; 'Faith and Reason'; 'Gethsemane'; 'Christ and Mary at the Sepulchre'; 'The Man of Sorrows'; 'Mors Janua Vitæ'; 'The Spirit of Twilight'; 'Thy Will be Done' (1879); 'Beati Mundo Corde' (1891), &c. He has illustrated Aytoun's Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers, and in 1864 he executed twenty illustrations of the Ancient Mariner. He is an R.S.A., was appointed Queen's Limner for Scotland in 1865, received the honour of knighthood in 1867, and in 1876 was made an LL.D. of Edinburgh. He has published two volumes of poems.