Reginald Rex Vicat Cole 1870-1940

Reginald Rex Vicat Cole ( 1870-1940 )
Scene ” John Gill’s farmland at Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire ”
Size 8 1/2″ x 5″ ( 11 1/2” x 8” framed ) ………$2,450.00 Canadian

We are extremely grateful to Professor Tim Barringer, Chair and Paul Mellon Professor of the History of Art at Yale University, for his expert insight into this remarkable painting. Mr. Barringer, a leading authority on British art and the great-grandson of Rex Vicat Cole, identified the scene as the fields at New Hall Farm, Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire, looking toward Nesfield and Langbar. He further noted that very few of these small pochade panels are known to survive.

“I am pleased to see that you have a small painting by Rex Vicat Cole, an artist I’ve researched for many years. I can’t be entirely sure about the date but most of his small works on wood panel (he used Whistler’s term ‘pochade’ for atmospheric, pocket-sized paintings, though he mis-spelled it ‘pochard’) were made around 1899-1905. I can identify very specifically the subject which is the farmland at Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire; indeed it is a scene on the farm owned by John Gill, New Hall; Rex married John’s daughter Hannah in 1901 and eventually bought the farm in 1931. The view is towards Nesfield (where the small hill on the horizon seen here is a Roman signal station) and Langbar.
I should add that Rex and Hannah were my great-grandparents and I grew up visiting that field every week, so it’s a delight to see the painting. I am thrilled to see one of these small paintings. Very few of them, as far as I know, survive.”

Tim Barringer
Chair and Paul Mellon Professor
Department of the History of Art
Yale University

The painting John Gill’s farmland at Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire captures the landscape that became central to both the personal and artistic life of Reginald Rex Vicat Cole (1870–1940). Looking toward Nesfield, with its Roman signal station, and the distant silhouette of Langbar, this rare oil pochade preserves the immediacy of Cole’s direct engagement with the Yorkshire countryside. Executed on a small wooden panel, it records the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere with a freshness rarely encountered in the artist’s larger exhibition works.

In 1901, Cole married Hannah Gill, daughter of John Gill of New Hall Farm, establishing a lasting connection to the Wharfedale landscape. Working from the farm and painting directly from nature, he developed the intimate knowledge of the region that would become one of the hallmarks of his career.

That same year, Cole presented A Year in Wharfedale at Dowdeswell’s Gallery in London, his first important solo commercial exhibition. The exhibition featured a series of small Yorkshire landscapes that explored the changing moods and seasons of the Dales, introducing collectors and critics to the atmospheric vision and close observation of nature that would become hallmarks of his mature work. While larger canvases continued to be shown at the Royal Academy, these smaller panels demonstrated an immediacy and observational skill that remain highly prized today.

As a surviving pochade from the years surrounding this landmark exhibition, the present work offers an unusually direct connection to the formative period in which Cole established his independent artistic reputation. Combining a precisely identified Yorkshire subject, an important personal association with New Hall Farm, and the spontaneity of plein-air execution, it stands as a compelling example of the work that helped define his lifelong relationship with Wharfedale.