Cole, George

George Cole

He was born on 15 January 1810 in Portsmouth and died on 7 September 1883.

Landscape, portrait and animal painter, who was self-taught and started his painting career with advertising posters for a travelling circus. This led him on to study animal painting and he travelled to Holland to study the Dutch Masters. For many years he painted in Portsmouth and had his first exhibit at the British Institute in London in 1840. In 1851 he toured the Moselle region of Germany with his son and the sketches from this tour was the basis of an exhibition in 1853 at the Royal Academy.

From 1849 to 1882 he exhibited at the Royal Academy changing his subject matter to that of landscapes of Hampshire, Surrey, Cornwall, Wales and Sussex. His son George Vicat Cole was also a landscape painter and their work is sometimes confused. During the 1860’s his prosperity was such that he was able to acquire a country home – Coombe Lodge in Hampshire and during the 1870’s his works grew in stature and fetch increasingly high sums, and his works were bought in large quantities, to such an extent that on his death in 1883 only seven paintings were left in his studio for sale.

Lived in:
London in 1880

Exhibited at:
Royal Society of Artists, Birmingham
Royal Academy x 3
Royal Society of British Artists x 15
Arthur Tooth & Sons Gallery x 2

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