JOHN VICAT COLE (1903-1975) A Little Shop in Chelsea

JOHN VICAT COLE (1903-1975) A Little Shop in Chelsea, 1974, signed lower right, oil on board, 16" x 19 3/4", painted wood carved frame (Illustrated) (subject to Artists Resale Right) (Est. plus 24% premium inc. VAT) Notes: This was the last in the long series of London shop front paintings exhibited by John Cole; it was shown as a memorial exhibit at the Royal Society of British Artists' exhibition after the artist's death in 1975. Cole enjoyed the small, unpretentious Georgian and Victorian buildings of London, and particularly admired small family businesses like this newsagent in Chelsea, where the headlines were displayed in gaudy colours outside to lure passers-by into the shop. Cole wryly included his own name in the hording for the Sunday Times, in addition to signing the work. This cheerful scene, painted not far from his home in Kensington, brought to an end an unbroken history of exhibiting landscape paintings by members of the Cole family that had begun in 1838; John Cole's father, grandfather and great grandfather had all lived and painted in Kensington. This work was shown in the exhibition The Cole Family: Painters of the English Landscape, 1838-1975 at Portsmouth City Art Gallery and Bradford, Cartwright Hall in 1978 and is reproduced in the accompanying book