Robert Noble RSA PSSA (27 January 1857 – 12 May 1917) was a Scottish artist specialising in landscapes. He was the first President of the Society of Scottish Artists.
He was born in Edinburgh to Thomas Noble (b.1825), a railwayman, and his wife, Janet Inglis.
In 1871 he was apprenticed to an engraver but also worked with his older cousin, James Campbell Noble, who was then an up-and-coming artist. [1] He encouraged him to study further and Robert went to Paris to train under Carolus-Duran. Here his genre changed from figurative to mainly landscapes. [2]
In the early 1880s he joined a small community of artists in the picturesque village of East Linton, east of Edinburgh. Here he worked alongside Thomas Bromley Blacklock and William Miller Frazer.
In 1890, he was co-founder of the Society of Scottish Artists and served as their first President. In 1892 he became an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy and in 1903 became a full member.
In 1905 he was residing at 12 Queen Street in the New Town, Edinburgh. [3]
He died suddenly on 12 May 1917 at home at "The Neuk" [2] in East Linton and is buried nearby in Prestonkirk churchyard. [4] The grave lies near the north east corner of the church and has a bronze medallion portrait by Henry Snell Gamley. [5] He was an elder of the church there. He was an avid angler and golfer and was also a freemason. [2]
In May 2017 East Linton marked the centenary of his death. [6]
He was married to Christian Balfour Greig (1859-1924).
His son William Balfour Noble (1891–1918) died of wounds sustained in the First World War serving with the 8th battalion Royal Scots. He died on Christmas Day 1918. His nephew William Balfour Noble was born on the day he died and named in his honour. [7]
See [8]
Noble also created the Roll of Honour which hangs in Prestonkirk Church covering the years 1914 to 1916. [7]
East Lothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area. The county was also known as Haddingtonshire.
The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and on its west by the Dean Gallery. A 20th-century extension lies detached from the main cemetery to the north of Ravelston Terrace. The main cemetery is accessible through the main gate on its east side, through a "grace and favour" access door from the grounds of Dean Gallery and from Ravelston Terrace. The modern extension is only accessible at the junction of Dean Path and Queensferry Road.
Alexander Runciman was a Scottish painter of historical and mythological subjects. He was the elder brother of John Runciman, also a painter.
Gavin Douglas was a Scottish bishop, makar and translator. Although he had an important political career, he is chiefly remembered for his poetry. His main pioneering achievement was the Eneados, a full and faithful vernacular translation of the Aeneid of Virgil into Scots, and the first successful example of its kind in any Anglic language. Other extant poetry of his includes Palice of Honour, and possibly King Hart.
Andrew Meikle was a Scottish mechanical engineer credited with inventing the threshing machine, a device used to remove the outer husks from grains of wheat. He also had a hand in assisting Firbeck in the invention of the Rotherham Plough. This was regarded as one of the key developments of the British Agricultural Revolution in the late 18th century. The invention was made around 1786, although some say he only improved on an earlier design by a Scottish farmer named Leckie. Michael Stirling is said to have invented a rotary threshing machine in 1758 which for forty years was used to process all the corn on his farm at Gateside, no published works have yet been found but his son William made a sworn statement to his minister to this fact, he also gave him the details of his father's death in 1796.
East Linton is a village and former police burgh in East Lothian, Scotland, situated on the River Tyne and A199 road five miles east of Haddington, with an estimated population of 1,790 in 2020. During the 19th century the population increased from 715 inhabitants in 1831 to 1,042 by 1881. The 1961 census showed the village had a population of 1,579. The number dropped significantly at the end of the 20th century, but has subsequently risen again.
The Royal Burgh of Haddington is a town in East Lothian, Scotland. It is the main administrative, cultural and geographical centre for East Lothian. It lies about 17 miles east of Edinburgh. The name Haddington is Anglo-Saxon, dating from the sixth or seventh century AD when the area was incorporated into the kingdom of Bernicia. The town, like the rest of the Lothian region, was ceded by King Edgar of England and became part of Scotland in the tenth century. Haddington received burghal status, one of the earliest to do so, during the reign of David I (1124–1153), giving it trading rights which encouraged its growth into a market town.
Schomberg Henry Kerr, 9th Marquess of Lothian,, styled Lord Schomberg Kerr until 1870, was a British diplomat and Conservative politician. He served as Secretary for Scotland under Lord Salisbury between 1887 and 1892. He was usually styled simply as Lothian.
George Baillie-Hamilton-Arden, 11th Earl of Haddington,, was a Scottish landowner and representative peer.
Auldhame and Scoughall are hamlets in East Lothian, Scotland. They are close to the town of North Berwick and the village of Whitekirk, and are approximately 25 miles (40 km) east of Edinburgh.
Balthere of Tyninghame was a Northumbrian hermit and abbot, resident in East Lothian during the 8th century.
William Birnie Rhind RSA (1853–1933) was a Scottish sculptor. Rhind was born in Edinburgh as the eldest son of sculptor John Rhind (1828–1892), and the elder brother of J. Massey Rhind. The two brothers set up a studio in Glasgow in 1885, then Birnie moved to Edinburgh, and his brother went to Paris, then permanently to America in 1889, despite the warnings of their father. His younger brother was Thomas Duncan Rhind, an architect.
Sir George Washington Browne was a Scottish architect. He was born in Glasgow, and trained there and in London. He spent most of his career in Edinburgh, although his work can be found throughout Scotland and beyond. He was involved in nearly 300 projects, including many public and commercial buildings. One of his most notable buildings is Edinburgh's Central Library, and he became recognised as an authority on library planning and design. He came to national attention after winning a competition to design a bridge over the River Thames in London, although this was never realised. He was the first architect to be elected as President of the Royal Scottish Academy. He also served as President of the Edinburgh Architectural Association, and was instrumental in setting up the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland.
The Church of St John the Evangelist is a Scottish Episcopal church in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is sited at the west end of Princes Street at its junction with Lothian Road, and is protected as a category A listed building.
Warriston Cemetery is a cemetery in Edinburgh. It lies in Warriston, one of the northern suburbs of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was built by the then newly-formed Edinburgh Cemetery Company, and occupies around 14 acres (5.7 ha) of land on a slightly sloping site. It contains many tens of thousands of graves, including notable Victorian and Edwardian figures, the most eminent being the physician Sir James Young Simpson.
Charles Hamilton, 5th Earl of Haddington, was a Scottish nobleman.
George Fiddes Watt was a Scottish portrait painter and engraver.
James Campbell Noble was a Scottish painter. He signed his paintings, mostly in the left hand bottom corner, as J.C. Noble or as J.Campbell Noble.
Charles Martin Hardie was a Scottish artist and portrait painter.