Cole exhibited 17 portraits at the Royal Academy from 1845 to 1859, only omitting 1848–1849. In 1845 he gave his address as ‘Worcester and 11 George St., Hanover Square, London’. In late October 1852 he auctioned off household goods, including 'choice paintings', in Worcester and moved fully to London after a brief period staying at Malvern to complete local commissions. His Royal Academy subjects, thereafter all from good London addresses, had no obvious Worcester connections and some had unusual foreign ones: these included Portrait of the late John Thomas, Esq. who had been HM Commissioner for suppression of the slave trade at St Paul de Loanda, West Africa (1845); two portraits of Henry Mann (1846 and 1857), the earlier when he was attaché at the British Embassy in Persia; and the Rev. Montesquieu, minister of St John’s church Calcutta (1852). It is not yet clear if ‘Mrs S. C. Cole’, shown in 1850, was his wife or perhaps elderly mother. In 1879–1880 Worcester entrusted him with the restoration of about 16 portraits in the Guildhall, including three of his own, one by Reynolds of George III, and others dating back to the seventeenth century. This suggests that he probably returned to live there permanently in later years. His 1852 sale had noted his house there would be 'let or sold', so he may have retained it.

Summarised from Art UK's Art Detective discussion ‘Who painted this portrait of John Wheeley Lea?'