George Cole was born in London on 15 January 1810, the second child and only son of James Cole and his wife, Elizabeth (née Parker). By the time that his mother died, in 1819, he had moved with his family to Portsmouth. Tim Barringer cites Cole’s grandson, the painter, Rex Vicat Cole, in stating that ‘George Cole’s father dissipated a fortune’, and a James Cole did die in a poor house in Portsmouth in 1847.
Because of this financial loss, Cole is said to have begun ‘his life with no formal education’ and served an apprenticeship as a house and ship painter.
An edition of Michael Bryan’s A Biographical Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, published in 1878, while Cole was still alive, provides convincing detail of his beginnings as an animal painter:
Having a taste for drawing animals, he devoted all his leisure hours to study, but without the advantage of instruction from a master, or even seeing any pictures of excellence.
A travelling menagerie coming to Portsmouth Fair, young Cole being much struck with the painted cloths exhibited in front of the caravans, was most anxious to be allowed to make studies from the living wild animals. An opportunity immediately offered, as Wombwell, the proprietor of the menagerie, applied to Cole’s master for colour, canvass, &c, and a convenient room for a travelling artist to paint one of these cloths in. Cole here had an opportunity of seeing a real living artist at work, and soon found out the method of applying the colours. After some careful studies from the life, he immediately set to work for himself, and his first performance so much pleased Mr Wombwell, that he at once commissioned ‘A Tiger Hunt in the Jungle with Elephants, &c.’ This picture, which was an immense undertaking, being twenty feet square, was finished and exhibited for the first time at Weyhill fair, where it created much sensation … this painted cloth brought many commissions to Mr Cole’s master from other menagerie proprietors, and our young artist was considered a great genius by these people … Conscience told him that he was helping others in deceiving the public, and, if he wished to be a real artist, he must be more truthful to nature …
After serving the full time of his apprenticeship he quitted his master’s business but still remained in Portsmouth, where he was greatly respected, and was for some time successful as an animal portrait painter. (pages 31-32)
In 1831, Cole married Eliza Vicat, a member of a Portsmouth Huguenot family. By a decade later, they were living at 1 Green Row, Portsmouth, with their three sons. Two of these – George Vicat Cole and Alfred Benjamin Cole – would follow in their father’s footsteps.
During the 1830s and 40s, Cole worked in a number of genres in addition to animal portraiture, including human portraiture, still life and landscape. In 1838, he began to exhibit in London, and would do so most frequently at the Society of British Artists. Soon after this debut, he took some lessons from the Scottish painter, John Wilson. Then, in 1845, he attracted much attention with his Don Quixote and Sancho Panza with Rosinante in Don Pedro’s Hut, when he showed it at the British Institution. Success led him to move with his family (by then comprising four children) to Montague Lodge, a large house in Buckland, just outside Portsmouth.
By 1849, when he first exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, Cole had begun to concentrate on landscape in emulation of works by artists of the Dutch School, which he had probably seen in the collections of his Portsmouth patrons. He made several sketching tours in Britain, often accompanied by his son, George, and, in 1851, they travelled together to the Moselle and Meuse. However, following a temporary estrangement in 1855, their working relationship came to an end. Cole was elected a member of the Society of British Artists in 1850 (and became its auditor in 1856, and its Vice-President in 1867).
From 1852, Cole and his family lived in London, first at 2 Lewis Place, Fulham (where a fifth child was born), and, from 1854, at 2 The Crescent, Kensington. A decade later, in 1863, he was able to purchase the larger neighbouring house, 1 Kensington Crescent, and also Coombe Lodge, near Liss, Hampshire.
During the 1850s and 60s, Cole travelled widely in Britain, taking in such popular motifs as Loch Katrine, in Scotland, and Bettws-y-Coed, in North Wales. However, at the heart of his subject matter lay the countryside of Southern England. As his career developed, he responded to his popularity by working on an increasingly large scale while also selling many smaller paintings directly to dealers.
George Cole died at his home at 1 Kensington Crescent, London, on 7 September 1883, five months after his wife.
His work is represented in numerous public collections, including Brighton and Hove Museums and Art Galleries and Portsmouth Museums.
Further reading:
Tim Barringer, ‘Cole, George (1810-1883)’, H C G Matthew and Brian Harrison (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,
Oxford University Press, 2004, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/5849
