The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-05-16


the iIlustrious author the personifi-
cation of senile decay, he has sue
ceeded in his work.
The New Salon. was founded as a
protest against the routine style of
art which characterized the original
Salon of the Society of French Artists,
which then became known as the Old
Salon.
A recent news letter from Madrid,
Spain, states: The recent theft from
the Royal armory of the two gold
Motive crowns of the Visigothic King
ISwintila, deprived Spain of one of it's
greatest treasures. Only in the Cluny
museum at Paris do similar speci-
mems exist.
Historians suppose that the two
crowns were originally part of the
Treasure of the old cathedral of Toledo
before the present building was con-
structed. It is believed that they were
removed from the church when the
Arab invasion occurred, and were
buried in a sepulchre in the hamlet of
IGurrazar in the vicinity of Toledo,
where they were discovered after six
centuries.
| Later, when Isabella II was on the
her and offered her the crowns and
iother articles which have now been
stolen from the Royal armory.
About the time of the Spanish
American war there lived in Wichita,
Kan, young man named John Noble,
who was filled with the desire to be-
come a great artist. He painted a
portrait of one of the city's former
mayors and submitted the same to the
lefty council, having heard that that
| body was considering the making of
| a collection of portraits of Wichita S
mayors to adorn the council chamber.
This portrait was scornfuny re-
Elected by the city fathers as being too
deficient in artistic merit for even
passing consideration.
| Mobiles next effort was Cleopatra
at the Bath" This was bought by a
hotel keeper to hang above the bar in
his establishment, and one of the first
acts in the career of the late Carrie
Nation was to throw a big stone thru
the painting when she started on her
crusade against Kansas Joints" in
1900 or 1901.
In 1900, the soon to be congressman,
| Victor Murdoch, presented young No
BILE with a book entitled Life in thu
Latin Quarter" which book SO fired
his imagination and kindled his am
bition that he forthwith sold out his
small photograph gallery and went to
Art Academy at that place. A little
later he went to Paris and studied
under Jean Paul Laurens at the
Academy Julien.
Noble took to the life of French
artist as a duck takes to water, but
fame was slow and fortune was slower
| in reaching this atom of the great
Partisan world of art. He decided to
attract attention unto himself-any
kind of attention, just So it was atten-
ton, and so the story goes, he one
day rugged himself up in the costume
| of an American cowboy, got on a
horse, rode into cafe. and shot up
the place. After that John Noble was
no longer unknown in the French
metropolis.
The attention drawn to himself
drew attention to his work also. In
| the year 1908 he exhibited at one of
| the big exhibitions a painting entitled
| "Benediction of the Sea-" This pic
| ture won for>him recognition from the
| French government and his fame was
! assured.
Once during the eight years from
the time he first went to Paris until
he won fame, Noble returned to- Wich-
| ita, thinking that he had come home
to stay. But the flat prairie scenery
| and the commonplace Kansas town
| life soon palled on him and he quickly
| returned to picturesque Brittany and
gay Paree.
He has been home on two or three
short visits since. Once he came with
| the declared special intention of paint
| ing the portrait of his one time bene-
I 4dCIOT, NlClOI X.
In the International Studio for No
| vember, 1914. is an article concern
ing American artists living in Paris,
written by Clara T. McChesney, 1t
states that Mobiles speciality is ma
| rines and that he spent nine years
painting scenery and fisher folk along
| the coast of Brittany. Later, he lived
for five years in an artists colony at
Trepfed, a village near Etapes in
| northern France.
In the year 1914 he entered at an
| exhibition held at Shepherds Bush, a
suburb OF London, a beautiful painting
called 'Toilers of the Sea-" which ex-
cited much admiration and favorable
| comment. The picture represented a
| group of fishermen dragging a heavy
boat along the sea sands. Even in
| the black and white reproduction it
is superb in composition, powerful in
| craftsmanship and fine in balance
and values. To quote from the above
| mentioned MeChesney article: among
| the newer men, John Noble is the
most poetic, and has a technique Pc
| culiarly his own. He generally see ma
! ture in mist of blue and rose. He
| sometimes advances into the field OF
| the impressionist, and gives US bold,
! crude decorative effects, in direct con-
| trast with his more finished pictures.
| OF his Moonlight on the Sea- envel-
oped in a fog, a French critic says:
The artist must be both a painter and
a poet to battle his pictures in an at
| mosphere so poetic and so true. He
| has given with infinite delieacy the
pale, unreal light of the morning fog.
1t would be impossible to find more
| feeling or sensitiveness in a picture
| than Noble has here expressed. His
technique is marvelously suited to the
| subject he treats. A true artist
| creates his own point of view. This is
a sign of genius. Noble has undoubt-
| edly his peculiar view point
The above is the latest information
| the writer of this column is at present
able to CLEAN concerning this undoubt-
| eddy gifted Kansan, but he thought
that even an incomplete sketch of the
mans career might be of interest to
the devotees of art in Topeka.
The dinner to dorado Taft at Pelle.
Iteir's tea room Friday evening, and
Mr.. Taft's lecture at Washburn col.