Matthew Noble Explained

Matthew Noble (23 March 1817 – 23 June 1876) was a leading British portrait sculptor. Carver of numerous monumental figures and busts including work, memorializing Victorian era royalty and statesmen, displayed in locations such as Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral and Parliament Square, London.^[1]

Life

Noble was born in Hackness, near Scarborough, as the son of a stonemason, and served his apprenticeship under his father. He left Yorkshire for London when quite young, there he studied under John Francis (the father of sculptor Mary Thornycroft). Exhibiting regularly at the Royal Academy from 1845 until his death, Noble became recognised after winning the competition to construct the Wellington Monument in Manchester in 1856.

Noble created a large body of work including portrait busts, statues and monuments. The deaths of two his sons, including Herbert (himself a promising sculptor, who was killed, aged 19, in the Abbots Ripton rail accident) are said to have contributed to Noble's own early death, aged 58, in June of the same year.^[2] He is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London, on the west side of the main entrance path from the north, towards the central colonnade.^[3] His uncompleted works were finished by his assistant Joseph Edwards, who also discarded the studio's plaster models.^[2]

Selected works

Church monuments and memorials

Throughout his career Noble was responsible for creating a number of monuments and memorials for British churches and cathedrals. Examples include

• Carved stone reredos depicting The Last Supper in the Church of All Saints at Eskdaleside cum Ugglebarnby in North Yorkshire.
• Wall monument to Lady Vanden Bempde-Johnstone in the Church of St. Peter, Hackness, North Yorkshire.
• Wall tablet memorial to Ann Harland, died 1844, in the Church of All Saints at Brompton, Scarborough.
• Pink granite tomb monument with bust, now lost, to Thomas Hood, died 1845, in Kensal Green Cemetery, London.
• A monument to Lord Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere, died 1857, designed by George Gilbert Scott with an effigy by Noble in the Church of St. Mark, Salford.
• An 1859 memorial to F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich, designed by George Gilbert Scott and carved by Noble, in the Church of All Saints, Nocton, Lincolnshire.
• Tomb chest with effigy, in grey and white marble, as a memorial to Thomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey, died 1859, in the Church of Saint John the Baptist at Flitton.
• A chest monument with marble effigy to John Elphinstone, 13th Lord Elphinstone, died 1860, in the Church of St Peter, Limpsfield, Surrey.
• Monument, with effigy, to Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, 5th Baronet, died 1872, in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin at Rufford, Lancashire.
• A monument, with life-size figures, dating from 1872 to William and Mary Heath in the Church of St. Lawrence at Biddulph, Staffordshire.
• Recumbent effigy of Sir Stephen Glynne (d. 1874) in St Deiniol's Church, Hawarden
• Memorial to Rev Henry Venn, 1875, St Paul's Cathedral, London
  • Marble bust of Lord Hobart, c. 1875, St. Mary's Church, Chennai Chest monument with effigy to Lord Lyveden, died 1876, in the Church of St Andrew, Brigstock, Northamptonshire.
• Several memorials, dating from 1868 to 1888, in the Church of St Mary and All Saints at Swynnerton, Staffordshire.

Other works

• Bust of David Napier, 1871, Glasgow Transport Museum
• Statue of William Cotton, 1855, Bank of England
• Busts of Oliver Cromwell,^[4] Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort in Manchester Town Hall^{[5] [6] [7]}
• Bust of former mayor Thomas Goadsby, 1862, in Manchester Town Hall^[8]
• Statues, on high cylindrical pedestals, of Queen Victoria, 1858, and Albert, Prince Consort, 1865, in the foyer of Leeds Town Hall^{[9] [10]}
• Marble busts of Edward, Prince of Wales and of Queen Alexandra in Leeds Town Hall^{[11] [12]}
• James McGrigor in the small garden to the Royal Army Medical College, London
• Statues of David Hume, John Hunter and Humphry Davy at the rear of the Royal Academy building, London
• Captain William (Bill) Henry Cecil George Pechell (1830–1855) now in Waterloo Street Community Garden, Hove, East Sussex
• Bust of Frederick Dawes Danvers completed in 1863
• Marble statue of Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning and a bust of Charlotte Canning, Countess Canning, both 1852, both for the interior of the Victoria Memorial, Kolkata^[13]
• Statue of Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo, c. 1875, at Mayo College, Ajmer, India^[13]
• Statue of Albert, Prince Consort, Bombay, India, 1869. Located at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai
• Marble statue of Queen Victoria and marble canopy, Bombay, India, 1872. Currently located in the grounds of the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai.
• Statue of William Duncombe, 2nd Baron Feversham in the monument with canopy, designed by George Gilbert Scott, erected in his memory at Helmsley, North Yorkshire, c. 1867.
• Marble busts of Oliver Cromwell from 1860 and of Giuseppe Garibaldi from 1867 in the Victoria and Albert Museum^[4]

Notes and References

1. Book: Robinson. Leonard. William Etty: The Life and Art. 2007. McFarland & Company, Inc.. Jefferson, NC. 978-0-7864-2531-0. 418.
2. Web site: University of Glasgow History of Art / HATII. Matthew Noble . 2011. 2 April 2023. Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain & Ireland 1851–1951.
3. Book: Benjamin Wheatley, Henry . Henry B. Wheatley

   . London, Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions · Volume 1 . Henry B. Wheatley . 1891 . . London . 282.

4. Book: Diane Bilbey with Marjorie Trusted . V&A Publications. 2002. British Sculpture 1470 to 2000 A Concise Catalogue of the Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum . 1851773959.
5. Web site: Bust of Oliver Cromwell . The Courtauld Institute of Art. 7 December 2022.
6. Web site: Bust of Prince Albert . The Courtauld Institute of Art . 7 December 2022.
7. Web site: Bust of Queen Victoria. The Courtauld Institute of Art . 7 December 2022.
8. Web site: Bust of Thomas Goadsby. The Courtauld Institute of Art. 7 December 2022.
9. Web site: Statue of Prince Albert . The Courtauld Institute of Art . 7 December 2022.
10. Web site: Statue of Queen Victoria. The Courtauld Institute of Art . 7 December 2022.
11. Web site: Bust of Edward, Prince of Wales . The Courtauld Institute of Art. 7 December 2022.
12. Web site: Bust of Princess of Wales, later Queen Alexandra . The Courtauld Institute of Art . 7 December 2022.
13. Book: Mary Ann Steggles & Richard Barnes. Frontier Publishing. 2011. British Sculpture in India: New Views & Old Memories . 9781872914411.