James Campbell Noble

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

James Campbell Noble RSA (1845–1913) was a Scottish painter famous for his landscapes and seascapes. He usually signed his works as J.C. Noble or J. Campbell Noble.

Born in Edinburgh to James Noble and Rachel Campbell, he studied at the Board of Manufactures in Edinburgh and later at the Royal Scottish Academy schools under William McTaggart and George Paul Chalmers. He apprenticed with his cousin Robert Noble in 1871 and may have taught his other cousins as well. He traveled across Europe, with the Netherlands and Italy becoming favorites, and kept a studio on Picardy Place in Edinburgh. He also taught at the Royal Scottish Academy art class on The Mound and at the Trustees Academy on Picardy Place; one of his pupils was Robert Gemmell Hutchison.

Noble began by painting rustic, outdoor scenes of cottages, but after becoming Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1879 and a full member in 1892, he shifted to land- and seascapes, rivers and port scenes. He painted views of the Clyde, Seine, Tyne, Merwede, Maas (Meuse) and the Rhine. He spent a long period living in the Netherlands, where Dordrecht was a favorite painting spot. He also worked in places like ’s-Gravendeel, Volendam and Zaandam. In the early 1880s he painted rocky coastal scenes of Berwickshire while living in Coldingham, and he returned to the Netherlands in 1900 to paint its waterways again.

In later years he lived in Scotland, in Dumfries and Galloway, and is linked to Corstorphine in 1896. His Sunset near Glencaple was exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1913. His portrait was painted by John Pettie and hangs in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. Noble lived at 12 Queen Street in Edinburgh’s First New Town toward the end of his life. He died on 25 September 1913 in Ledaig, Argyll, and is buried in Rosebank Cemetery in Edinburgh beside his cousin Robert Noble.

He exhibited with the Royal Scottish Academy, Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Art, Liverpool Museum, Aberdeen Artists Society, and the Royal Academy in London from 1880 to 1896.