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
Académie Julian, and later at the
École des Beaux-Arts. From 1952 to 1953, he was president of Allied Artists of America. His first wife died in 1961, and Cole married Anita Rio (born 1873), a singer, and the widow of painter Eugene Higgins, in 1962. Cole actively painted and exhibited up to the age of 103. Cole's work is in the permanent collections of London's
National Portrait Gallery and the
Brooklyn Museum, He was also the oldest living person in the United States for seven months after the death of 112-year-old Elzona Maxey on April 25, 1988. He died in New York City, aged 112 years and 136 days. == See also ==