Biographical Information

COLE, GEORGE VICAT (1833-1893), English painter, born at Portsmouth on the 17th of April 1833, was the son of the landscape painter, George Cole, and in his practice followed his father's lead with marked success. He exhibited at the British Institution at the age of nineteen, and was first represented at the Royal Academy in 1853. His election as an associate of this institution took place in 1870, and he became an Academician ten years later. He died in London on the 6th of April 1893. The wide popularity of his work was due partly to the simple directness of his technical method, and partly to his habitual choice of attractive material.

Most of his subjects were found in the counties of Surrey and Sussex, and along the banks of the Thames. One of his largest pictures, The Pool of London, was bought by the Chantrey Fund Trustees in 1888, and is now in the Tate Gallery.

See Robert Chignell, The Life and Paintings of Vicat Cole, R.A. (London, 1899).

Source: Entry on the artist in the 1911 Edition Encyclopedia.