George Cole Biography

Cole was born in Portsmouth in 1810 and was entirely self-taught until the age of thirty, when he took some lessons from the Scottish marine artist John Wilson.

During his early life he remained in Portsmouth, but in 1852 he moved to London. He resided in Fulham, moving to Kensington where he remained for the rest of his life. He was a prolific artist and exhibited regularly at the principal London venues. He exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1849 and 1882, at the British Institution between 1839 and 1867 and at the Royal Society of British Artists of which he became a member in 1850, between 1852 and 1883. He was awarded a medal for a landscape from The Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts.