The Noble Maritime Collection salutes preeminent maritime painter John Stobart, who passed away earlier this month at age 93. Stobart and John A. Noble were friends and mutual admirers. In 2001 he joined the Board of Trustees of the museum, which presented a retrospective of his work in 2003 and the exhibition Stobart at Noble in 2018.

Stobart was a master painter whose panoramic compositions recall the history of the maritime industry. He has an international reputation and his work is in major art collections worldwide. Born in Leicester, England, he showed an early aptitude for creativity and studied at the Derby College of Art and Royal Academy Schools. Upon graduation, he embarked on a voyage to South Africa where he began a lifetime process of gathering material for his work in ports throughout the world.

He immigrated to Canada in 1957 and established his career as a painter, and in 1965 he moved with his family to the United States. He founded Maritime Heritage Prints, Inc. in 1976, through which he published limited edition prints of his works, and in 1986 he published the first of his large-format books, Stobart, The Rediscovery of America's Maritime Heritage. He created the Stobart Foundation in 1989 for the purpose of awarding scholarships to qualified students who excel in plein air painting in oil on canvas.

John Stobart was forever youthful, jovial, charming, and generous. This photograph from May 26, 1954, courtesy of thejohnstobartgallery.com, shows him around age 25, honored to have his painting, The Fleet Review At Spithead, exhibited in London.

Stobart at Noble

The John Stobart Gallery