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George Cole Art

British, 1810-1885

George Cole was a portrait landscape and animal painter in oils. He was the father of George Vicat Cole. Cole was born in Portsmouth to James and Elizabeth Cole. His mother died when he was nine years old. According to the artist's grandson, Rex Vicat Cole, he was apprenticed to a ship's painter in the Royal Navy dockyards at Portsmouth. He taught himself to paint pictures, at first portraits and animals; he also painted posters for Wombwell's menagerie. In 1838, Cole's painting The Farm Yard was shown at the Society of British Artists. When he was 30, he changed his focus to landscapes and received instruction from John Wilson and started exhibiting in 1840. One anecdote has him painting the portrait of a Dutch merchant in Portsmouth. After the sitter refused to pay him, saying it was a bad likeness, Cole added wings and put the painting in a shop window with the title The Flying Dutchman. The man's friends recognized him and laughed; he paid for the painting and Cole painted out the wings. His career has been regarded as a good example of the Victorian self-made man. In 1831, he married Eliza Vicat, of an old French Huguenot family. In 1852, he moved to Fulham and in 1855 to Kensington, where he lived for the rest of his life. In the mid-1860s, he purchased Coombe Lodge, a small estate in Hampshire. In a series of richly colored and detailed landscapes on large canvases executed during the 1860s and 1870s, Cole created an idealized version of the Hampshire moorlands and agricultural landscape; examples include Fern Karting, Harting Coombe (1873, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth). Cattle continued to play an important role in his compositions and he specialized in the depiction of river scenery with cows watering, including, for example, Windsor Castle. Although he exhibited 16 works at the Royal Academy, Cole's work formed a mainstay of the exhibitions of the Society of British Artists at Suffolk Street, where he exhibited 209 paintings from 1838 until he died in 1883. He was elected a member in 1850, became an auditor in 1856 and vice-president in 1867. He was also awarded a medal for a harvesting scene in 1864 by the Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts. George Cole died on 7 September 1883 at his home at 1 Kensington Crescent and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, London.

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Artist: George Cole
A Stream in the Forest - British Victorian 1859 art landscape oil painting
A Stream in the Forest - British Victorian 1859 art landscape oil painting

A Stream in the Forest - British Victorian 1859 art landscape oil painting

By George Cole

Located in Hagley, England

A fine and very detailed large Victorian British landscape painting. Painted in oil on canvas it is by listed and exhibited Victorian artist George Cole, dated 1859. A wonderful larg...

Category

19th Century Realist George Cole Art

Materials

Oil

19th Century landscape genre oil painting of farmworkers with horses & a dog
19th Century landscape genre oil painting of farmworkers with horses & a dog

19th Century landscape genre oil painting of farmworkers with horses & a dog

By George Cole

Located in Nr Broadway, Worcestershire

George Cole British, (1810-1883) Rick Making, Lunchtime Oil on canvas, signed & dated 1883 Image size: 23.5 inches x 35.5 inches Size including frame: 30.5 inches x 42.5 inches Prove...

Category

19th Century Victorian George Cole Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

19th Century landscape genre oil painting of ploughmen with horses & a dog
19th Century landscape genre oil painting of ploughmen with horses & a dog

19th Century landscape genre oil painting of ploughmen with horses & a dog

By George Cole

Located in Nr Broadway, Worcestershire

George Cole British, (1810-1883) Waiting for a Treat Oil on canvas, signed & dated 1857 Image size: 19.5 inches x 29.5 inches Size including frame: 26.25 inches x 36.25 inches A cha...

Category

19th Century Victorian George Cole Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

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Previously Available Items
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‘Langdale, Westmorland’ by George Cole (1810-1883). This very large fine oil on canvas of a waterfall in the Lake District of England is signed and dated by the artist and was exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists in 1879. Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary. George Cole was one of Victorian Britain’s most successful landscape painters, although the majority of his early work comprised animal portraits. Cole’s first important patron was the British Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel...

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George Cole art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic George Cole art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by George Cole in oil paint, paint, canvas and more. Not every interior allows for large George Cole art, so small editions measuring 22 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Robert Cleminson, Thomas Baker of Leamington, and Edward Robert Smythe. George Cole art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $773 and tops out at $7,866, while the average work can sell for $7,115.

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