COLE, Philip Tennyson

1862 - 1939

Philip Tennyson Cole, known as Tennyson Cole, was born at Marylebone, London on 30 May 1862, eldest son and second child of James Cole, a painter of general subjects, and his wife Sophia Emma née Willis, who married at Marylebone in 1860. In 1871, Tennyson was an 8-year-old, living at Minerva Lodge, The Avenue, Acton, London, with his parents, 30-year-old James and 36-year-old Sophia, and his three siblings, Emma Maria 10, Herbert Willis 6 and Florence 2, and they were still living in Acton ten years later when Tennyson was an art student at Chiswick College. At the age of 22, with his future wife giving her age as 25, he married at St James, Piccadilly in 1885, Alice Mary Saintsbury (1855-7 April 1894), a mezzo soprano singer and daughter of Frederick Saintsbury. In 1889, leaving his wife in New Zealand, he travelled to Tasmania and in 1892 to Melbourne, Australia, and the following year he went to South Africa. The New Zealand Gazette of 24-26 October 1892 has reports of his wife suing Tennyson for maintenance when she reported that he was living with another Mrs Tennyson Cole, she was awarded a £1 week, but Alice died back in Sydney on 7 April 1894. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, and in 1908 from 61a Cadogan Square, London 'King Edward VII', selling the rights to produce engravings to Henry Graves & Co., of Pall Mall, London but was sued for damages by the publishers for failing to sign the engravings when Cole stated that Graves 'had failed to produce reasonably good engravings' and Cole's defence was accepted, when Cole was awarded £250 costs. Cole travelled to South Africa, being fined for an assault in Durban in 1913 and living there until 1927. A member of the Ipswich Art Club 1928-1933 exhibiting from Oak Hill, Ipswich in 1928 five portraits, 'The Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich', 'The late Alderman W. F. Paul', 'Mrs Fred Keighly', 'Brig. General S. E. Massy-Lloyd' and 'Mrs J. H. P. Daman'. He also exhibited at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Internatiional Society of Sculptors Painters; London Salon; New Gallery; Royal Society of Portrait Painters; Royal Society of British Artists and Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours. Sitters for his portraits included Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) and in 1896 he painted the portrait of former Prime Minister and the then Attorney-General of the Cape Colony, Sir Thomas Upington (1844- 1898) he also painted in Europe, Egypt, India, and the United State. In 1930 Cole published his memoirs 'Vanity Varnished; Reminiscences in Many Colours'. Philip Tennyson Cole died at Tooting Bec Hospital, London on 2 September 1939, aged 77 and despite earnings of over £60,000 died penniless.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from Bolton Studios, Redcliffe Road, Southwest London
1887 1285 Mrs. B. Robert Lemon - watercolour
from Grove House, Seymour Place, Kensington
1888 1352 The Countess of Iddesleigh
from the Royal Colonial Institute, Northumberland Avenue, London
1901 161 The Duke of Norfolk, K.G.
1902 260 Sir Frank Green, Bart., Lord Mayor of London
         271 Lord Milner, G.C.M.G., G.C.B., High Commissioner for South Africa
from Constitutional Club, Northumberland Avenue, Westcentral London
1907 772 The Duke of Argyll, K.T., Governor of Windsor Castle
from 61a Cadogan Square, London
1908 257 King Edward VII

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Works by This Artist