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George Vicat Cole, RA |
The eldest son of George Cole (1810-1883), Vicat Cole exhibited almost yearly at the Royal Academy between 1853-92. His landscapes are characterised by a Pre-Raphaelite attention to detail, but are also structurally strong: panoramic views that accentuate the variety and alternation of meadow and woodland. Vicat Cole returned to this subject many times. Cole's breakthrough came with Harvest Time, Painted at Hombury Hill, Surrey in 1860, a large canvas completed in the open air, strongly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites. The Society of Arts awarded Cole a silver medal for the work which is now in the collection of the Bristol City Art Gallery. Such was Cole’s success that in 1863 he resigned from the Society of British Artists in favour of exhibiting his paintings at the Royal Academy and following his election to membership of the Royal Academy he rarely exhibited elsewhere. Cole’s biographer, R Chignel cites one of his most conspicuous successes as his Surrey landscape, Summer’s Golden Crown, exhibited in 1866 at the Royal Academy and then at the Paris Salon the following year. The present location of Summer’s Golden Crown is unknown but given the subject and date of our painting Harvest Time, illustrated above, our painting appears to be a very similar example. Other comparable works include Autumn gold (1871) and Cornfield by Gatehampton (1886). In 1880 he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy and as his status grew his circle of friends included the artists John Everett Millais, B W Leader and Frederick Leighton. Following his death in 1893 there were many tributes from his fellow artists and in 1896 Robert Chignel published a lavish three- volume biography with reproductions of a large number of paintings. |
