art.wikisort.org - Artist

Philip Tennyson Cole (30 May 1862 – 2 September 1939), generally known as Tennyson Cole, was an English society portrait painter in both oils and watercolours, who first achieved fame in Australasia and South Africa.[1]

Biography

Cole was born into a family of artists in London in 1862.[2] As a young boy, Cole received training in art from his father, who was himself a successful painter.[3] He may have been related to George Vicat Cole.[4] He was educated at Chiswick College in Middlesex and had his first exhibition in London by age 20.[2]

Around the age of 19, he fell in love with Alice Mary Saintsbury, an actress, whom he married in 1885, supporting him financially.[5]

He sailed to Tasmania, arriving in the Doric in 1889.[6] During the voyage he painted his female companion, a fine contralto who called herself Madame Cole, and several fellow passengers. After a year's stay in Hobart, having completed a good many commissions to general acclaim, including a fine pair of portraits of the Governor and Lady Hamilton, which were presented to the Art Gallery of Tasmania,[7] he moved to Melbourne. In October 1892, while visiting New Zealand, he was charged in Auckland with deserting his wife in England some three years before.[8] He was ordered to pay his wife support of £1 per week.

He left Australia from Adelaide aboard the Ormus in September 1893. His erstwhile wife died in Sydney on 7 April 1894.[9] In August 1895 the (yet to be inaugurated) Perth Art Gallery was donated his portrait of Sir George Grey.[10] In May 1896 he was working in South Africa. In 1900 he was touring the African interior.[11] The following year he was back in England and the Royal Academy had an exhibition which included his portrait of the Duke of Norfolk.[12] In 1902 commissions included Lord Milner and Cecil Rhodes. In 1908 he was granted a series of sittings by the King.[13] He spent part of the World War I years as a guest of an Indian Maharajah; he died in Tooting Bec Hospital.[14]

Selected works

In Great Britain

Held in various public collections; listed at Art UK – Your Paintings

• Alderman Lieutenant Colonel Clifford Probyn, Mayor of Westminster (1901–1902) painted 1902
• Alderman William F. Paul, Mayor of Ipswich
• Cecil John Rhodes et nos fas extera quaerere regna
• Cecil Rhodes (1853–1902) painted 1902
• Charles Alexander Buckmaster painted 1936
• Charles Richard John Spencer-Churchill (1871–1934), 9th Duke of Marlborough
• Duke of Norfolk, 1st Mayor of Westminster (1900–1901)
• Edward VII (1841–1910) painted ca.1908
• General Sir Edmund Allenby (1861–1936), KCB painted ca.1918
• George V (1865–1936) painted ca.1915
• King Edward VII painted 1907
• King Edward VII (1841–1910) painted 1907
• Lord Kitchener of Khartoum (1850–1916) painted ca.1913
• Major General the Right Honourable Lord Cheylesmore, Mayor of Westminster (1904–1906) painted 1906
• Mayor Councillor Viscount Doneraile, Mayor of Westminster (1919–1920) painted 1920
• Owen Cosby Philipps, 1st Baron Kylsant, MP painted 1920
• Portrait of a Governor painted 1898
• Sir Alfred F. Robbins (1856–1931), journalist, Freemason and Freeman
• Sir John Hunt, Town Clerk of the City of Westminster painted 1931
• Sir William Treloar (1843–1923), Lord Mayor of London (1906) painted 1907
• William Mansfield (1855–1921), 1st Viscount Sandhurst
• Violet, Marchioness of Donegall and her son Edward painted 1907 Peerage website

South Africa

• Sir Thomas Upington South African History Online

Australia

• Portraits of Sir Robert and Lady Hamilton, painted in 1890, were donated to the Tasmanian Art Gallery.[15]
• Hon. Peter Lalor as Speaker held by Ballarat Art Gallery

Bibliography

• Cole, P. Tennyson Vanity Varnished; Reminiscences in Many Colours 1931 London: Hutchinson & Co.[3]

References

External links

• Art UK – Your Paintings art site

---