Reginald ("Rex") George Vicat Cole (1870–1940) was an English landscape painter.

Life

Vicat Cole was the son of the artist George Vicat Cole and Mary Ann Chignell. He was educated at Eton and began to exhibit in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1890. In 1900 he was elected a member of the

Royal Society of British Artists The Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) is a British art body established in 1823 as the Society of British Artists, as an alternative to the Royal Academy. History The RBA commenced with twenty-seven members, and took until 1876 to reach fi ...

. His preferred subject matter was the landscape of the area surrounding

Bolton Abbey Bolton Abbey Estate in Wharfedale, North Yorkshire, England, takes its name from a 12th-century Augustinian monastery of canons regular, now known as Bolton Priory. The priory, which was closed in the 1539 Dissolution of the Monasterie ...

in the Yorkshire Dales. In 1900, he married Hannah Gill, the daughter of a Yorkshire farmer. In 1901, an exhibition at Dowdeswell's Gallery collected his work under the title "A Year in Wharfedale". He taught at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

with Byam Shaw, and together they opened their own establishment, the Byam Shaw and Vicat Cole School of Art, in Camden Street,

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

in 1910. At the outbreak of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Vicat Cole and Byam Shaw enlisted in the

Artists Rifles The 21 Special Air Service Regiment (Artists) (Reserve), historically known as The Artists Rifles, is a regiment of the British Army Reserve. Its name is abbreviated to 21 SAS(R). Raised in London in 1859 as a volunteer light infantry unit, ...

although Shaw soon transferred to the

Special Constabulary The Special Constabulary is the part-time volunteer section of statutory police forces in the United Kingdom and some Crown dependencies. Its officers are known as special constables. Every United Kingdom territorial police force has a speci ...

. After Shaw's death in 1919 Vicat Cole was Principal until his retirement in 1926. In 1905, Vicat Cole and his family began to rent the cottage of Brinkwells near

Fittleworth Fittleworth is a village and civil parish in the Chichester (district), District of Chichester in West Sussex, England located west from Pulborough on the A283 road and south east from Petworth. The village has an Anglican church, a primary s ...

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

, where he found the inspiration for many of his paintings and drawings. Between 1917 and 1921, Cole sub-let the property to

Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

, who composed his last major works there. Vicat Cole was especially known for his paintings of trees, and he wrote and illustrated a book on ''British Trees'' (1907), and another on how to depict trees in art, ''The Artistic Anatomy of Trees'', published in 1915. He also wrote a book on Perspective, and planned another on ''The Streets of London'', which was never published, although the manuscript survives, as do over two hundred works intended as illustrations. His one-man show "London Old and New" at Robert Dunthorne's Gallery, Vigo Street, London, in 1935, included panel paintings of nearly all the City churches, and large canvases of ''London from Waterlow Park'' (now in Southampton Art Gallery), ''St Paul's from Bankside'' and ''St Martin-in-the-Fields''. Throughout the first three decades of the twentieth century he exhibited landscapes at the Royal Academy's annual exhibitions. He collapsed and died in 1940 in Sussex whilst helping to rescue a family whose car had become stranded in flood water. The school of art he founded became part of

Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design Central Saint Martins is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art university in London, England. The college offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a variety of short ...

in 2003. Vicat Cole's son, John Cole (1903-1975), trained at the Vicat Cole and Byam Shaw School of became a landscape painter who specialized in representations of old shop-fronts. Like his father, grandfather, and great grandfather (George Cole, 1810-1883), he exhibited at the Royal Academy, and became a member of the Royal Society of British Artists.

Sources

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References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vicat Cole, Rex 1870 births 1940 deaths People educated at Eton College Academics of King's College London 19th-century English painters English male painters 20th-century English painters Artists' Rifles soldiers Academics of the Byam Shaw School of Art Rother Valley artists People from Fittleworth British Army personnel of World War I 20th-century English male artists 19th-century English male artists Territorial Force soldiers