portrait painter and amateur singer, came to Tasmania in the Doric in 1889. Working in both oils and watercolour, he was said to have '“attained some prominence among the artists of the Old Country”. Last year his portrait of Countess of Iddlesleigh hung in the Royal Academy. On the voyage to Tasmania, he painted Mrs Tennyson Cole, Mr Leatham Bright and Mrs Bright, his fellow passengers’ ( Mercury 2 July 1889, 2). He lent his portraits of Mrs Robert Senior, Mrs Tennyson Cole, and 'the lady of Colonel North’ to the Tasmanian Museum ( Mercury 3 July 1889, 2).
Judge at the Tasmanian Photographic and Art Association’s meeting, Hobart ( Mercury 22 July 1889, p.2). Secured a studio at the Technical School, Hobart ( Mercury 3 August 1889, p.3).
Mr Tennyson Cole sang 'I fear no foe’ and 'The Boatswain’s Story’ (plus two encores) at the Hobart Orpheus Club concert in the Town Hall ( Mercury 10 September 1889, p.2).
Tennyson Cole was a judge (with Dr J.W. Agnew and Mr W.G. Bevan) at the Tasmanian Art Association exhibition, where he also exhibited two watercolours and two oils (all portraits) ( Mercury 13 December 1889, 3).
Tennyson Cole’s portrait of Sir James Agnew was presented to the Tasmanian Club by Alfred Dobson ( Tasmanian Mail 26 April 1890, 9).
Tennyson Cole’s portraits of Duncan Gillies (Premier of Victoria), John Riddock of Mount Gambier, Colonel Goldstein, Messrs Doubleday, Charles Bradley, Dr. H. Ray, and Mrs Douglas Stewart and her daughters, were praised in a long article published Mercury 15 September 1891, 2.
“Tennyson Cole’s water colour 'In Marble Halls’ is another cheap thing. The subject is seemingly a bright-faced parlour-maid draped in a yellow-bed curtain. She is a nice girl enough in her way, and might be trusted to clean up and do most of the washing for twelve shillings a week, though in the capacity of a high-toned Toorakian at £262 10s she strikes one as a failure. If the price of a picture is what it will fetch there can be no doubt that none of the exhibits in the V.A.E. are priceless” ( Bulletin 5 December 1891, 14).
Madame Tennyson Cole was a contralto with the Foli concerts in Hobart ( Mercury 6 August 1892, 3). Off to New Zealand with his wife, who was singing with Signor Foli’s company ( Mercury 26 August 1892, 3).
Exhibited Victorian Artists’ Society, 1892.
Report of a court case over a portrait, Cole vs John T. Smith ( Mercury 2 September 1893, p.3).
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1999
- Last updated:
- 2011
