John Wright Noakes, a predominantly English landscape painter, was born On the 9th July 1820  at Sproston House, in Cheshire, and educated in Liverpool where he studied art under John Bishop in the school attached to the Liverpool Mechanics' Institution. During his early career he specialised in still life but around 1843 he began painting landscapes in oil from nature which he exhibited in the Royal Academy.

By 1874 he was also painting in water colours and in that year was elected an associate of  the Institute of  Painters in Water Colours, though he resigned this position the following year. He was associated with the Pre – Raphaelite movement and was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1876, and, as a result of a number of works painted in Scotland, an honorary member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1883. Around this time he both exhibited in Glasgow and probably painted a scene, in oils, Glen Sannox  Arran,  a painting which subsequently was gifted to Norfolk Museum services in 1896, nine years after his death.

In spite of ill health during the last 6 years of his life, he still  exhibited annually at the Royal Academy. Among his best known Scottish works are: Glen Muick, Dunnottar Castle, The Bass Rock, and The Border Countrie.

Oakes died at home in Kensington on the 8th July 1887  and was buried in Brompton Cemetery.

References:

htttps://artuk.org/discover/artists/oakes-john-wright

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography