Thomas Satterwhite Noble

Thomas Satterwhite Noble (May 29, 1835 – April 27, 1907) was an American painter as well as the first head of the McMicken School of Design in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Biography

Noble was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and raised on a plantation where hemp and cotton were grown. He showed an interest and propensity for art at an early age. He first studied painting with Samuel Woodson Price in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1852 and then continued his studies with Price, Oliver Frazier and George P.A. Healey at Transylvania University in Lexington. In 1853 he moved to New York City before moving to Paris to study with Thomas Couture from 1856 to 1859.

Noble then returned to the United States in 1859 intending on beginning his art career. Though Kentucky was a slave state not in the Confederacy, with the beginning of the Civil War, as a Southerner, Noble served in the Confederate army from 1862 to 1865. After the war, Noble was paroled to St. Louis and began painting. With the success of his first painting, Last Sale of the Slaves, he received sponsorship from wealthy Northern benefactors for a studio in New York City. Noble lived in New York city from 1866 to 1869, during which time he painted some of his most well-known oil paintings. In 1869, he was invited to become the first head of the McMicken School of Design in Cincinnati, Ohio, a post he would hold until 1904. In 1887, the McMicken School of Design became the present-day Art Academy of Cincinnati. During his tenure at the McMicken School of Design, Noble moved briefly to Munich, Germany, where he studied from 1881 to 1883.

Exhibitions and major works

Noble's artwork has been exhibited in over 70 exhibitions, both during his lifetime and after his death. Most of his well-known initial works are historical presentations, painted to make strong political and moral commentary. Later in his life he painted many allegorical images, often having his children pose for figures in the paintings. After studying in Munich and towards the end of his life, Noble focused his artistic work on landscapes of Ohio and Kentucky countryside and Bensonhurst, New York. Noble also sketched a well-known lithograph for Harper's weekly based on his John Brown's Blessing.

Known exhibitions 1866: St. Louis, Missouri, Pettes and Leathe Gallery 1866: New York, New York, National Academy of Design, 7th Annual Exhibition of the Artist's Fund Society 1866: New York, New York, National Academy of Design, 41st Annual Exhibition 1866: Boston, Massachusetts, DeVries Ibarra and Co. 1867: New York, New York, National Academy of Design, 42nd Annual Exhibition 1867: Boston, Massachusetts, Childs and Co. 1867: Washington, DC United States Capital 1867: St. Louis, Missouri, Pettes and Leathe Gallery 1867–68: Chicago, Illinois, Opera House Art Gallery 1868: Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Academy of Fine Arts, Wiswell's Gallery 1868: New York, New York, National Academy of Design, 43rd Annual Exhibition 1869: Boston, Massachusetts, Williams and Everett Gallery 1868–69:Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Academy of Fine Arts, Wiswell's Gallery 1869: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 46th Annual ExhibitioN 1870: Cincinnati, Ohio, Wiswell's Gallery 1870: Cincinnati, Ohio, 1st Cincinnati Industrial Exposition 1870: New York, New York, National Academy of Design, 45th Annual Exhibition 1871: Cincinnati, Ohio, Wiswell's Gallery 1871: New York, New York, National Academy of Design, 46th Annual Exhibition 1872: Cincinnati, Ohio, 3rd Cincinnati Industrial Exposition 1873: Cincinnati, Ohio, McMicken School of Design, 3rd Annual Exhibition 1874: Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Industrial Exposition 1875: Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Industrial Exposition 1875: Chicago, Illinois, Chicago Academy of Design 1875: Glasgow, Scotland, James McCure and Sons, 14 Gordon Street 1876: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition Art Gallery and Annex 1877: Cincinnati, Ohio, Wiswell's Gallery 1878: Cincinnati, Ohio, Women's Art Association, Loan Collection Exhibition 1879: Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Industrial Exposition 1880: Chicago, Illinois, Chicago Academy of Design 1887: Indianapolis, Indiana, Indianapolis Art Association, 4th Annual Exhibition 1888: Chicago, Illinois, Chicago Art Institute, 1st Annual Exhibition of American Oil Paintings 1891: Cincinnati, Ohio, Piper Gallery, 2nd Exhibition of the Cincinnati Art Club 1894–95: Lexington, Kentucky, Lexington Manufacturer's Exposition, Art Loan Gallery 1895: Atlanta, GA Cotton States and International Exhibition 1895: Cincinnati, Ohio, Spring Exhibition of the Cincinnati Museum Association 1896: Cincinnati, Ohio, Spring Exhibition of the Cincinnati Museum Association 1896: Cincinnati, Ohio, Music Hall, Loan Exhibition of Portraits 1896: Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, Loan Exhibition of Portraits 1896–97: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carnegie Art Galleries, 1st Annual Exhibition 1896: Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, Exhibition of Studies, Sketches, and Pictures in Watercolors 1897: Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, 2nd Exhibition of the Society of Western Artists 1897–98: Detroit, Michigan, Detroit Museum of Art, 2nd Exhibition of the Society of Western Artists 1898: Chicago, Illinois, Art Institute of Chicago, 2nd Exhibition of the Society of Western Artists 1898: Indianapolis, Indiana, Indianapolis Propylaeum, 2nd Exhibition of the Society of Western Artists 1898: Detroit, Michigan, Detroit Museum of Art, 3rd Exhibition of the Society of Western Artists 1898–99: Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, 3rd Exhibition of the Society of Western Artists 1899: Indianapolis, Indiana, Indianapolis Art Association, 3rd Exhibition of the Society of Western Artists 1899: Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, 6th Annual Exhibition of American Art 1900: Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, 7th Annual Exhibition of American Art 1901: Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Fall Festival 1905: Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Business Men's Club 1906: Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, 13th Annual Exhibition of American Art 1907: Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, "Exhibition of the Work of the Late Thomas S. Noble" 1908: Chicago, Illinois, Chicago Art Institute, "Paintings of Thomas S. Noble 1835–1907" 1908: St. Louis, Missouri, St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts, "Paintings by Thomas S. Noble, et al." 1910: New York, New York, Ralston Galleries, "Paintings by Thomas S. Noble" 1915: San Francisco, California, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, Department of Fine Arts 1923: Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, "Special Exhibition of Former Cincinnati Artists" 1937–38: Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, "50th Anniversary Exhibition of Work by Teachers and Former Students of the Art Academy" 1970: College Park, Maryland, University of Maryland Art Gallery, "American Pupils of Thomas Couture" 1979–80: Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, "The Golden Age: Cincinnati Painters of the 19th Century Represented in the Cincinnati Art Museum" 1981: Lexington, Kentucky, University of Kentucky Art Museum, "The Kentucky Painter: From the Frontier Era to the Great War" 1984: Owensboro, Kentucky, Owensboro Museum of Fine Arts, "Kentucky Expatriates: Natives and Notable Visitors" 1987: Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, "The Procter & Gamble Art Collection" 1987: New York, New York, Phillips Gallery, "Look Away, Reality and Sentiment in Southern Art" 1987: New York, New York, ACA Gallery, Visions of America 1787–1987: "200 Years of American Genre Painting in Commemoration of the Bicentennial of the US Constitution" 1988: Lexington, Kentucky, University of Kentucky Art Museum, "Thomas S. Noble 1835–1907" 1988: Greenville, South Carolina, Greenville County Museum of Art, "Thomas S. Noble 1835–1907" 1988: Cincinnati, Ohio, Art Academy of Cincinnati, "Thomas S. Noble 1835–1907" 1990: Washington, DC, Corcoran Gallery, Facing History: "The Black Image in American Art, 1710–1940" 1990: Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn Museum of Art, "Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710–1940" 2009.9.3: Oxford, Ohio, Miami University Art Museum "Figure and Form" 2015.3.25-2015.5.31: Greenville, SC, Greenville County Museum of Art, "Romantic Spirits: 19th Century Paintings from the Johnson Collection" 2016.1.13-2016.9.21: Greenville, SC, Greenville County Museum of Art, "Right Before your Very Eyes: Art + History" 2016: Highland Heights, Kentucky, Northern Kentucky University, Steely Library 2017.2.15- 2017.9.10: Greenville, SC, Greenville County Museum of Art, "In a Mirror, Darkly"

Major museum/collection holdings Allen Memorial Art Museum: The Present (1865) Chazen Museum of Art: Grandfather's Story (80th Birthday, The Old Sailor) (1895) Cincinnati Art Museum: Back to School (1859), Ohio Landscape (1890), Study Head of a Man (1865), Portrait of Joseph Longworth (1894), Portrait of David Sinton (1896), Landscape near T.S. Noble's House on Kemper Lane (unknown) The Filson Historical Society: Study for a Figure in Witch Hill (possibly self-portrait) (1867) Greenville County Museum of Art: The Sybil (1896), Cleaning Antiques (1904), Fugitives in Flight (1869) The Johnston Collection: Forgiven (1872) Kentucky Historical Society: The Last Communion of Henry Clay (1870) (also attributed to Robert Walker Weir) Missouri Historical Society: The Last Sale of Slaves in St. Louis (1870) Morris Museum of Art: Price of Blood (1868) National Academy of Design: Self Portrait (unknown) New York Historical Society: John Brown's Blessing (1867) and Witch Hill (1869) Underground Railroad Museum: Margaret Garner (The Modern Medea) (1867) Yale University Art Gallery: Blind Man of Paris (1895), Still Life-A Potted Plant (1875), Man in Brown Suite (from behind) (1870s)