Joseph Noël Paton I

Above: Satan Watching the Sleep of Christ, 1874

For the last month I have been involved in preparing a new retrospective exhibition of the works of Joseph Noël Paton (1821-1901).  The last exhibition of this sort was hosted 30 years ago, indeed it seems to go in Thirty year cycles. The exhibition opens tomorrow and runs until February 9th 2025 at Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries featuring more than 50 paintings, drawings and sketches, all of immense craftsmanship and across diverse genres and disciplines, such as book illustration, stained glass design and incredible paintings. In his life time he was incredibly famous and celebrated, Paton’s works often toured Britain, even with their own special lighting. For example, his painting The Two Paths attracted over 50,000 visitors in one day when it was exhibited in Bristol in February 1885.

Above: Cartoons for stained glass at Dunfermline Abbey (windows below).

Above: The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania 1849

Above: Dawn: Luther at Erfurt 1861

Above: The Ancient Mariner.

An unbelievable amount of work goes into organising an exhibition like this and my deepest respect goes to the curator Lesley Lettuce who has been worked so hard to arrange all of the loans from museums, family and private collectors and put an incredible retrospective together. A project that began and a was stalled by the covid epidemic has now come into fruition.

The Fife-born artist Noel Paton, was Queen Victoria’s official painter in Scotland. The exhibition features beautiful paintings, drawings, and illustrations, showcasing Paton as an artist, sculptor, poet, historian, and devoted family man, this was a multi-talented man who deserves to be better known in his hometown of Dunfermline and further afield.

Above: One of Sir Joseph Noël Paton’s illustration of The Tempest (1845)

Above: The Lullaby (1861)