JOHN VICAT COLE (1903-1975) The Fruit Shop at Rye

JOHN VICAT COLE (1903-1975) The Fruit Shop at Rye, 1964, signed lower right, The Mall Galleries and Portsmouth City Museum and Art Gallery labels verso, oil on board, 18" x 24", 20th century painted frame (Illustrated) (subject to Artists Resale Right) (Est. plus 24% premium inc. VAT) Notes: John Cole, described by a journalist as the "artist to a nation of shopkeepers" exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy annually from 1928 until his death in 1975. The fourth generation of artists in his family, he was trained at the Vicat Cole and Byam Shaw School of Art, co-founded by his father. John Cole became famous for depictions of shop-fronts in London, Yorkshire and (as in this work) in Sussex where he painted extensively from the late 1950s onwards. His carefully observed, painterly works were made on the spot. Instead of an easel, Cole used a specially constructed painting box, within which a primed board was slotted