Biography from Michael Preston Worley: Alphaeus Cole was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on 12 July 1876, the son of the engraver Timothy Cole (1852-1931). He would live to the phenomenal age of 112 († 25 November 1988), having witnessed America's Centennial and Bicentennial, as well as other historic events including the Dreyfus trial and the Armory Show. Toward the end, he received letters from Presidents Carter and Reagan. Cole began in the Académie Julian under Laurens and Constant. The former criticized his drawing technique as tight and dry. Cole exhibited Dante Watching the Building of the Florentine Cathedral at the Salon of 1900 in Paris, and three years later he married Margaret Ward Warmsley, then returned to America. His painting, The Girl in the Mirror was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1912. At the Armory Show he was depressed that "such fearful trash [could be] applauded. Worse still to find beautiful Corots and Whistlers along side of these daubs. We stayed about an hour then went on to dinner. . . ." Meanwhile, Cole had started to exhibit his works at the Art Institute of Chicago (1907-35).

At the National Academy of Design, Cole's Summer Idyll was shown in 1915 and Under the Red Cross was exhibited there two years later. Two more works were hung "on the line" at the NAD in 1918, and yet another in their winter exhibition of 1919. Between 1924 and 1931 Cole taught at the Cooper Union. He was grateful for the position since commissions were hard to find. In 1924 his Green Shawl was hung "on the line" at the National Academy's winter exhibition and he began to exhibit at the New York Water Color Club around that time. Cole served on various committees within that institution. His picture in the NAD's 1926 show was Dolores of Spain, yet he was disappointed how poorly it was hung.

In 1928 Cole served as a judge along with Abbott Graves in the San Antonio Art League competition. Cole, who accompanied Robert Vonnoh on that trip, would have judged the works of artists from all over the country, including Augustus Dunbier from Nebraska. In 1930 Cole was named an Associate of the National Academy of Design. He continued to exhibit but less enthusiastically, through the Depression era. Apparently the public works programs did not appeal to him. He managed to take another trip abroad in the summer of 1934 (London, Paris, Florence) and in the following year he published a biography of his father, Timothy Cole, Wood Engraver.

In 1937 Cole was teaching at the Grand Central Art School. During this period he was taking on unusual themes: a painting with the intriguing title of The Blank Canvas, a work commissioned for St. Anthony's Guild in a Franciscan monastery (St. Francis with the Birds), and Hunters of the Stone Age. Throughout his life, Cole complained about minor colds, coughs and indigestion, and was rather discouraged and morose. Little did he know in 1938 when he turned sixty-one, feeling depressed, that he would have almost fifty years to live. In the 1940s Cole turned to Catholicism and continued to produce portraits and win impressive prizes. His wife died in 1961 and only a few months later, he married an 88 year-old widow named Anita Higgins who had been married to the painter Eugene Higgins. They moved into the Chelsea Hotel.

Anita Higgins Cole died in 1971 at the age of ninety-nine. Cole told a newspaper reporter that he had always wanted to be a history painter "but portrait painting was more profitable. A good portrait painter is always in demand." He celebrated his 100th birthday on 12 July 1976 and was declared a "walking tribute." Indeed, he was quite a walker himself. At the age of eighty-five, for instance, he went from 89th Street to the Bowery on foot. The Salmagundi Club threw a party for Cole in 1981 when he turned 105. Cole maintained a pleasant realistic style in his portraiture. He declared his dislike for "modern art," and was happy that the Academy "has not fallen for modernism but stuck to try to paint & get inspiration from nature."