John Sargent Noble was an animal and sporting painter. He studied at the Royal Academy Schools and was a pupil of Edwin Landseer. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy in London from 1866 to 1895.

He also exhibited at the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Fine Art Society and Arthur Tooth and Sons Gallery in London, as well as at the Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham, Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and Manchester City Gallery.

In 1872 he was elected a member of the Society of British Artists, a society that appointed James Whistler its President in 1886. In 1887, during Whistler's Presidency, Noble sat on the SBA Council.