Alphaeus Philemon Cole

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Alphaeus Philemon Cole (Jersey City, New Jersey, July 12, 1876 - New York City, November 25, 1988) was an American artist, engraver and etcher. He was the son of noted engraver Timothy Cole.^[1] At the time of his death, at 112, he was the world's oldest living man.^{[citation needed]}

Alphaeus Cole studied art first under Isaac Craig, in Italy, then in Paris from 1892 to 1901 with Jean Paul Laurens and Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant at the Academie Julian,^[2][3] and later at the Ecole des Beaux Arts.^[1] In the mid-1890s, he began to produce many vibrant works, mostly various still lifes and portraits. His painting of Dante was exhibited in the 1900 Paris Salon,^[2] and more artwork was displayed at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.

Cole moved to England and married sculptress Margaret Ward Walmsley in 1903.^[2] He began to venture into the fields of wood/steel engraving and etching, but these works sold predominantly less than his portraits. He contributed several drawings to the Encyclopædia Britannica. They moved again, to the United States, in 1911.^[2] In 1918, Cole became a member of the Salmagundi Club, the nation's oldest professional art club.^[1] From 1924 to 1931, he taught portrait and still life classes at Cooper Union.^[3] He was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1930.^[1] He was the president of the New York Water Color Club from 1931 to 1941.^[2] In the 1940s, Cole worked as a judge of paintings in Max Pochapin's Manhattan Hall of Art, a merchandising art gallery, which was a revolutionary idea at the time.^[4] From 1952-1953, he was president of Allied Artists of America.^[5] His first wife died in 1961, and Cole married Anita Rio, a singer, and the widow of painter Eugene Higgins, in 1962.^[2] She died in 1973.^[1]

Cole actively painted and exhibited up to the age of 103.^[3] He died at New York's Chelsea Hotel, where he had lived for 35 years.^[6] Cole's work is in the permanent collections of London's National Portrait Gallery and the Brooklyn Museum,^[1] and his papers are stored at the Smithsonian Institution.^[2]

Though not recognized at the time, Cole is now recognized as the oldest living man for about a year from January 5, 1987 till his own passing, succeeding another notable supercentenarian, 111-year-old Norwegian skier Herman Smith-Johannsen. Prices for Cole's works now reach $5,000 or more. When he died at the astounding age of 112 years and 136 days, Cole had staked his claim as being the oldest known artist ever.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

• Oldest people
• Supercentenarian

[edit] References

Preceded by John Mosely Turner	Undisputed Oldest Recorded Man Ever April 18, 1988 — January 2, 1990	Succeeded by John Evans
Preceded by Herman Smith-Johannsen	Oldest Recognized Living Man January 5, 1987 — November 25, 1988	Succeeded by John Evans