Figure painter and draughtsman, also well known as a broadcaster on arts and as a photographic critic in British national press. He was born in Dallas, Texas, spent the first few years of his life in India, then returned to New Orleans. Aged six he entered military academy, and aged seven won first prize in the Vieux Carré Artists Open Competition. While at Middlesex School at Concord, Core won every possible prize for art and literature during the period 1963–9, when he entered Harvard on a scholarship. After a short period he obtained leave to go to Paris, where he helped research a book on the Symbolists, returning to graduate in 1973. Later that year he attended Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford, then in 1974 Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, moving permanently to London in 1975.