{{short description|English painter}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Tennyson Cole | image = | caption = | birth_date = 30 May 1862 | birth_place = London, England | death_date = {{death date and age text|2 September 1939|30 May 1862}} | occupation = Society portrait painter in both oils and watercolours | notable_works = Portraits of the Governor and Lady Hamilton, Duke of Norfolk, Edward VII, George V, Lord Kitchener of Khartoum | spouse = Alice Mary Saintsbury (m. 1885; div. 1894) | children = }}
'''Philip Tennyson Cole''' (30 May 1862 – 2 September 1939), generally known as '''Tennyson Cole''', was an English society portrait painter in both oils and watercolours, who first achieved fame in Australasia and South Africa.<ref>{{cite news |title=Mr. P. Tennyson Cole: Portrait Painter |work=The Times |page= 13 |date=4 September 1939 }}</ref>
==Biography== Cole was born into a family of artists in London in 1862.<ref name="who">{{cite book|last1=Wills|first1=Walter H.|last2=Barrett|first2=R. J.|title=The Anglo-African Who's who and Biographical Sketch-book|date=1905|publisher=George Routledge & Sons, Limited|page=[https://archive.org/details/angloafricanwho00barrgoog/page/n48 30]|url=https://archive.org/details/angloafricanwho00barrgoog|accessdate=5 June 2017|language=en}}</ref> As a young boy, Cole received training in art from his father, who was himself a successful painter.<ref name=vanity>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article35676303 |title=A Painter's Reminiscences |newspaper=Advertiser and Register |location=Adelaide |date=1 August 1931 |accessdate=25 October 2014 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He may have been related to George Vicat Cole.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12708654 |title=Mr. Tennyson Cole |newspaper=The Mercury |location=Hobart, Tasmania |date=29 November 1890 |accessdate=25 October 2014 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He was educated at Chiswick College in Middlesex and had his first exhibition in London by age 20.<ref name="who"/>
Around the age of 19, he fell in love with Alice Mary Saintsbury, an actress, whom he married in 1885, supporting him financially.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article145709955 |title=An Artist's Wives. |newspaper=Table Talk |location=Melbourne |date=4 November 1892 |accessdate=25 October 2014 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
He sailed to Tasmania, arriving in the ''Doric'' in 1889.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38350712 |title=Tasmanian News |newspaper=Launceston Examiner |location=Tas. |date=2 July 1889 |accessdate=25 October 2014 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> During the voyage he painted his female companion, a fine contralto who called herself Madame Cole, and several fellow passengers. After a year's stay in Hobart, having completed a good many commissions to general acclaim, including a fine pair of portraits of the Governor and Lady Hamilton, which were presented to the Art Gallery of Tasmania,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9332014 |title=The Governor Hamilton Memorial Fund |newspaper=The Mercury |location=Hobart, Tasmania |date=21 May 1895 |accessdate=26 October 2014 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> he moved to Melbourne. In October 1892, while visiting New Zealand, he was charged in Auckland with deserting his wife in England some three years before.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52440221 |title=New Zealand |newspaper=The Morning Bulletin |location=Rockhampton, Qld. |date=21 October 1892 |accessdate=26 October 2014 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He was ordered to pay his wife support of £1 per week.
He left Australia from Adelaide aboard the ''Ormus'' in September 1893. His erstwhile wife died in Sydney on 7 April 1894.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139702196 |title=Family Notices. |newspaper=The Australasian |location=Melbourne |date=3 November 1894 |accessdate=26 October 2014 |page=45 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> In August 1895 the (yet to be inaugurated) Perth Art Gallery was donated his portrait of Sir George Grey.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71219976 |title=News of the Week |newspaper=Australian Town and Country Journal |location=Sydney |date=17 August 1895 |accessdate=26 October 2014 |page=15 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> In May 1896 he was working in South Africa. In 1900 he was touring the African interior.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4847745 |title=Anglo-Australian Notes |newspaper=The Advertiser |location=Adelaide |date=17 July 1901 |accessdate=26 October 2014 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> The following year he was back in England and the Royal Academy had an exhibition which included his portrait of the Duke of Norfolk.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4843286 |title=The Royal Academy |newspaper=The Advertiser |location=Adelaide |date=15 June 1901 |accessdate=26 October 2014 |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> In 1902 commissions included Lord Milner and Cecil Rhodes. In 1908 he was granted a series of sittings by the King.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25719230 |title=A Wonderful Portrait |newspaper=The West Australian |location=Perth |date=30 March 1908 |accessdate=26 October 2014 |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He spent part of the World War I years as a guest of an Indian Maharajah; he died in Tooting Bec Hospital.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article76084972 |title=He Earned £60,000, Died Penniles |newspaper=The Northern Times |location=Carnarvon, WA |date=12 April 1940 |accessdate=26 October 2014 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
==Selected works==
===In Great Britain=== Held in various public collections; listed at [https://artuk.org/search/search/search/keyword:philip-tennyson-cole Art UK – Your Paintings] *Alderman Lieutenant Colonel Clifford Probyn, Mayor of Westminster (1901–1902) painted 1902 *Alderman William F. Paul, Mayor of Ipswich *Cecil John Rhodes et nos fas extera quaerere regna *Cecil Rhodes (1853–1902) painted 1902 *Charles Alexander Buckmaster painted 1936 *Charles Richard John Spencer-Churchill (1871–1934), 9th Duke of Marlborough *Duke of Norfolk, 1st Mayor of Westminster (1900–1901) *Edward VII (1841–1910) painted ca.1908 *General Sir Edmund Allenby (1861–1936), KCB painted ca.1918 *George V (1865–1936) painted ca.1915 *King Edward VII painted 1907 *King Edward VII (1841–1910) painted 1907 *Lord Kitchener of Khartoum (1850–1916) painted ca.1913 *Major General the Right Honourable Lord Cheylesmore, Mayor of Westminster (1904–1906) painted 1906 *Mayor Councillor Viscount Doneraile, Mayor of Westminster (1919–1920) painted 1920 *Owen Cosby Philipps, 1st Baron Kylsant, MP painted 1920 *Portrait of a Governor painted 1898 *Sir Alfred F. Robbins (1856–1931), journalist, Freemason and Freeman *Sir John Hunt, Town Clerk of the City of Westminster painted 1931 *Sir William Treloar (1843–1923), Lord Mayor of London (1906) painted 1907 *William Mansfield (1855–1921), 1st Viscount Sandhurst *Violet, Marchioness of Donegall and her son Edward painted 1907 [https://www.thepeerage.com/e6432.htm Peerage website]
===South Africa=== *Sir Thomas Upington [https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/philip-tennyson-cole South African History Online]
===Australia=== *Portraits of Sir Robert and Lady Hamilton, painted in 1890, were donated to the Tasmanian Art Gallery.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9228033 |title=Tasmanian Art Gallery |newspaper=The Mercury |location=Hobart, Tasmania |date=1 February 1890 |accessdate=25 October 2014 |page=1 Supplement: The Mercury Supplement |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> *''Hon. Peter Lalor as Speaker'' held by Ballarat Art Gallery
==Bibliography== *Cole, P. Tennyson ''Vanity Varnished; Reminiscences in Many Colours'' 1931 London: Hutchinson & Co.<ref name=vanity/>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == *[https://artuk.org/search/search/search/keyword:philip-tennyson-cole Art UK – Your Paintings art site]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Tennyson}} Category:1862 births Category:1939 deaths Category:English portrait painters Category:19th-century English painters Category:English male painters Category:20th-century English painters Category:Painters from London Category:20th-century English male artists Category:19th-century English male artists