William Collins (painter)
Encyclopedia
John Constable
John Constable was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home—now known as "Constable Country"—which he invested with an intensity of affection...
.
Life and work
Collins was born in Great Titchfield StreetGreat Titchfield Street
Great Titchfield Street is a street in the West End of London. It runs north from Oxford Street to Greenwell Street, just short of the busy A501 Marylebone Road and Euston Road. It lies within the informally designated London area of Fitzrovia. In administrative terms it is in the City of Westminster...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, son of William Collins Snr., an Irish-born picture-dealer and writer. He showed a great aptitude for art from an early age, and was, for a time, an informal pupil of George Morland
George Morland
George Morland was an English painter of animals and rustic scenes.-Life:Morland was born in London, the 3rd son of Henry Robert Morland , artist, engraver and picture restorer...
. In 1807, he entered the schools of the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
(at the same time as William Etty
William Etty
William Etty was an English painter, best known for his paintings of nudes.-Beginnings:In accordance with the wishes of his father, Etty served seven years of apprenticeship to a printer in Hull...
) - exhibiting there in the same year. In 1809 he gained a medal in the life school, and exhibited three pictures - 'Boy at Breakfast,’ ‘Boys with a Bird's-nest’ and a ‘Portrait of Master Lee as he spoke the Prologue at the Haymarket Theatre.’
In 1811, Collins sold a picture entitled ‘The Young Fifer.’ to the Marquis of Stafford for eighty guineas
Guinea (British coin)
The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...
. In 1812, he produced the work which made his name famous, ‘The Sale of the Pet Lamb,’ sold for a hundred and forty guineas, and engraved by S. W. Reynolds
Samuel William Reynolds
Samuel William Reynolds was a mezzotint engraver, landscape painter and landscape gardener. Reynolds was a popular engraver in both Britain and France and there are over 400 examples of his work in the National Portrait Gallery in London.- Biography :Reynolds was born on 4 July 1773...
. He now became the chief support of his family - following the death of his father (in finanancial difficulty) in that year - and found some valuable patrons, especially Sir Thomas Freeman Heathcote, Sir John Leicester, Sir Robert Peel
Robert Peel
Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 December 1834 to 8 April 1835, and again from 30 August 1841 to 29 June 1846...
, Sir George Beaumont
Sir George Beaumont, 7th Baronet
Sir George Howland Beaumont, 7th Baronet was a British art patron and amateur painter. He played a crucial part in the creation of London's National Gallery by making the first bequest of paintings to that institution....
, and Lord Liverpool. In 1814 two pictures, ‘The Blackberry Gatherers’ and ‘The Birdcatchers' (both sold privately), won him an associateship of the Royal Academy (ARA).
In 1815, Collins undertook a sketching tour of the Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
coast near Cromer
Cromer
Cromer is a coastal town and civil parish in north Norfolk, England. The local government authority is North Norfolk District Council, whose headquarters is in Holt Road in the town. The town is situated 23 miles north of the county town, Norwich, and is 4 miles east of Sheringham...
, and produced 'Scene on the Coast of Norfolk' which was acquired by George IV
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
, then prince regent
Prince Regent
A prince regent is a prince who rules a monarchy as regent instead of a monarch, e.g., due to the Sovereign's incapacity or absence ....
. In 1817 he visited Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
with Leslie and Washington Allston
Washington Allston
Washington Allston was an American painter and poet, born in Waccamaw Parish, South Carolina. Allston pioneered America's Romantic movement of landscape painting...
, and painted 'The Departure of the Diligence from Rouen', and the 'Scene on the Boulevards' (both sold privately) - these were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1818. He also painted several portraits around this time.
In 1820, Collins was elected a Royal Academician (RA), presenting as his diploma picture ‘The Young Anglers.’ In 1822 he married Harriet Geddes, daughter of Andrew Geddes
Andrew Geddes
Andrew Geddes was a Scottish portrait painter and etcher.-Life:Geddes was born in Edinburgh. After receiving a good education in the high school and in the University of Edinburgh, he was for five years in the excise office, in which his father held the post of deputy auditor...
(ARA) and sister of Margaret Sarah Carpenter, the portrait painter. He continued to exhibit and travel in England and Scotland, and his art enjoyed great popularity. In 1826 he painted 'The Fisherman's Departure', (engraved by Phelps
Phelps
-Places:United States* Phelps County, Missouri* Phelps County, Nebraska* Phelps, Kentucky* Phelps , New York** Phelps , New York* Phelps, Wisconsin, a town* Phelps , Wisconsin, an unincorporated community...
), and in 1828 made a tour of Holland and Belgium, living for short time in Boulogne in 1836. ‘Rustic Hospitality’ was painted in 1834, and, in 1836, ‘Sunday Morning' and ‘As Happy as a King’. The subject of the latter picture was suggested to Collins by the story of the country boy whose ideal of kingly happiness was swinging upon a gate all day long and eating fat bacon.
In September 1836, Collins left London for Italy, remaining there until 1838. During these two years he occupied himself unremittingly in advancing his knowledge of painting, but had to return due to illness. He then begun a series of pictures depicting Italian life including ‘Poor Travellers at the door of a Capuchin Convent near Vico, Bay of Naples’ and ‘A Scene near Subiaco’, which were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1839. These were followed in 1840-1 by two subjects taken from the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
- ‘Our Saviour with the Doctors in the Temple,’ and ‘The Two Disciples at Emmaus.’
From 1840-42 Collins was librarian to the Royal Academy and in 1843 had moved to a large house at 1 Devonport Street, Hyde Park Gardens. In 1840 he visited Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and in 1842 the Shetland Islands
Shetland Islands
Shetland is a subarctic archipelago of Scotland that lies north and east of mainland Great Britain. The islands lie some to the northeast of Orkney and southeast of the Faroe Islands and form part of the division between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. The total...
- the latter tour inspiring him to produce a series of illustrations for Sir Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
's novel 'Pirate' (published in the Waverley edition of the book).
In 1846 Collins' ‘Early Morning’ was exhibited. Of it Ruskin
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
said, "I have never seen the oppression of sunlight in a clear, lurid, rainy atmosphere more perfectly or faithfully rendered, and the various portions of reflected and scattered light are all studied with equal truth and solemn feeling." Collins also produced some watercolours, such as ‘The Rat-catcher’, ‘Landing Fish’, ‘A Street in Naples’ and ‘Kentish Peasant Girls’, and etched several plates, most of which, along with engravings of his best work, were gifted to the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
by Mrs. Collins.
Collins died from heart disease, "terminating in dropsy", in Devonport Street, on 17 Feb. 1847, and was buried in the cemetery of the church of St. Mary, Paddington, where a handsome monument, in the form of a cross, was erected to his memory by his widow.
He left two sons: The elder, William Wilkie Collins, the famous novelist, wrote a biography of his father entitled "Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq., R.A." (1848) - he was named after his godfather, notable artist David Wilkie
David Wilkie (artist)
Sir David Wilkie was a Scottish painter.- Early life :Wilkie was the son of the parish minister of Cults in Fife. He developed a love for art at an early age. In 1799, after he had attended school at Pitlessie, Kettle and Cupar, his father reluctantly agreed to his becoming a painter...
; The younger son, Charles Allston Collins
Charles Allston Collins
thumb|Convent Thoughts by CollinsCharles Allston Collins was a British painter, writer and illustrator associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Early years:...
was also an artist.
Works
Collins exhibited at the Royal Academy every year from 1807-46 (a total of 124 pictures), and showed forty-five pictures at the British InstitutionBritish Institution
The British Institution was a private 19th-century society in London formed to exhibit the works of living and dead artists; it was also known as the Pall Mall Picture Galleries or the British Gallery...
. His major works are listed in Volume 2 (pp. 341–52) of "Memoirs" (see bibliography).
Today his works can be found at the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
and Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
in London and other regional centers.
External links
- W. Collins online (ArtCyclopedia)
- W. Collins biography and works
- Returning from the Haunts of the Seafowl (Walker Art Gallery)
- W. Collins archive (Royal Academy Collection)
- Scene from the Caves of Ulysses, at Sorrento (1841, oil on canvas)
- Hall Sands, Devo (1846, oil on canvas - V & A)
- A country kitchen (1811, oil on canvas - V & A)