Joseph Foxcroft Cole

Background

Joseph Foxcroft Cole was born on November 9, 1837 in Jay, Maine, United States. He was the son of Samuel and Selinda (Allen) Cole. His parents moved to Boston when he was seven years old.

Education

After public-school education Cole served an apprenticeship at the Bufford Lithograph establishment, where he had as associates Joseph P. Baker and Winslow Homer.

Career

While he worked at lithography Cole saw in Boston many English and German paintings but "had no desire to become an artist". Once, however, he saw a landscape by Constant Troyon which aroused in him an intense desire to paint after the French formula. In 1860 his savings permitted him to go to Paris where he enrolled himself as a pupil of Lambient. After a sketching tour in Italy he returned to Boston where he sold enough pictures to enable him to continue his studies. In 1865 Charles Jacques received him as an advanced student and assistant, employing him to paint from pencil sketches pictures which the master finished and signed. Cole exhibited pictures of his own at the 1866 Salon and the International Exposition of 1867. His summers were spent in Normandy and Belgium. Returning to the United States he occupied a studio in the Century Building, Boston, and a house at Melrose. In 1873 the family went to Paris where they remained four years. During this time Cole exhibited paintings in the Salons of 1873, 1874, and 1875. He sent to the Philadelphia Centennial three pictures: "Cows Ruminating, " "Scene in Normandy, " and "Melrose Twilight. " Returning home, in 1877 he built a house and a studio on Mystic Lake, Winchester, Massachussets, where, except for brief trips to Europe and to California, he passed the rest of his life. Here he painted his serious, low-toned landscapes, and advocated among his professional associates and friends the formation of collections of nineteenth-century French art. "One can hardly estimate, " says F. T. Robinson, "the influence which Cole, in connection with Hunt, 'Tom' Robinson, A. H. Bicknell and Henry Sayles, has had on the arts of the two continents. " Among those whom Cole instructed was his daughter, Adelaide Cole Chase, a distinguished portrait-painter of Boston. He belonged to the Society of American Artists and was well represented in public and private collections when he died in middle life. He was buried in Wildwood Cemetery, Winchester.

Achievements

• He is best known for his works of 'Coast of Normandy', and 'The Aberjond', both can be seen in the Winchesster Library in Massachusetts.

Connections

He married Irma de Palgrom, a singer of international celebrity.

Father:

Samuel Cole

Mother:

Selinda (Allen) Cole

Spouse:

Irma de Palgrom

He was a singer of international celebrity