‘On the Arun, Sussex’ by George Vicat Cole RA, RBA (1833-1893).

The painting is signed with the artist’s monogram and dated 1869, in which year Vicat Cole was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy. The painting was one of the first to bear his monogram, which he adopted upon becoming an ARA. Vicat Cole was made a full Royal Academician in 1880.

George Vicat Cole was one of the most eminent and successful English landscape painters in the second half of the 19th century, considered by many to be the heir to John Constable and John Linnell. Vicat Cole trained under his father, George Cole RBA (1810–1883), and their work shares much in common. As well as emulating and eventually surpassing his father’s technical skill, Vicat Cole’s colouring and attention to detail owes something to the Pre-Raphaelite landscapes of William Holman Hunt, John Inchbold, and William Dyce. It was the greatest Pre-Raphaelite of them all, John Everett Millais, who championed Vicat Cole’s early career and the former’s presence on the Royal Academy hanging committee resulted in Vicat Cole’s painting ‘Spring’ being hung ‘on the line’ (at eye level, the most favourable and prestigious position) in the RA Exhibition in 1865. By the 1880’s Vicat Cole’s only rival as England’s greatest living landscape painter was Benjamin Williams Leader RA, although arguably the latter’s greatest work was already behind him.

Between 1852 and 1892 George Vicat Cole exhibited 76 paintings at the Royal Academy, 10 at the British Institution, and 48 with the Royal Society of British Artists in 1858. Today, the paintings of George Vicat Cole can be found in the Royal Academy, Tate Britain, and the Victorian and Albert Museum in London, Manchester Art Gallery, Glasgow Museum, the National Museum in Cardiff, the Walker Gallery in Liverpool, the Laing Gallery in Newcastle, and in the National Collection of the British Government, among many others.

Academy Fine Paintings only offers artwork for sale in the finest condition it can be for its age, having been professionally cleaned, conserved, and re-varnished. Clients should also note that tracked and signed for international shipping is complimentary.

Dimensions: (framed) 85cm x 120cm (33½” x 47¼”).

Dimensions: (canvas only) 67cm x 103cm (26½” x 40¼”).

Medium: Oil on canvas.

Provenance: 1992; Sotheby’s London. 2010; Sotheby’s, London. Private UK collection.

Presentation: Newly commission gold metal leaf frame.

Literature: 1886; ‘The Life and Paintings of Vicat Cole’ by Robert Chignell. 1988; ‘The Cole Family of Painters’ by T.J. Barringer (published 1988).

Condition: Very good. Professionally cleaned, restored, and re-varnished. Ready to hang.