Sir Joseph Noel Paton, a British painter, born at Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1821. He studied at the royal academy in London, was elected associate member of the academy in 1846, academician in 1856, and queen's limner for Scotland in 1865. He was knighted in 1867. His "Spirit of Religion," a fresco (1845), and his oil paintings of " Christ bearing the Cross " and "Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania" (1847), commanded considerable prices, and his "Quarrel of Oberon and Titania" (1849) brought £700 for the Scottish national gallery. The best known of his numerous illustrations of the poets are " Dante composing the Story of Francesca da Rimini" (1852), "The Dead Lady" (1854), and six pictures illustrating the old border ballad, " The Dowie Dens of Yarrow " (1860). Among his many other productions are "Pursuit of Pleasure" (1855), "Home" (1856), "In Memoriam" (1856), and " Dawn: Luther at Erfurt" (1861). He has published " Poems by a Painter " and " Spindrift" (Edinburgh, 1867).