Jacob Collins (born 1964) is an American realist painter working in New York City. He is a leading figure of the contemporary classical art revival. He has founded several schools of art including the Water Street Atelier, the

Grand Central Academy of Art The Grand Central Atelier is an art school in the Long Island City neighborhood of the borough of Queens in New York City. Founded in 2006 by New York artist Jacob Collins, the school focuses on training artists in the classical art tradition. ...

and the Hudson River Fellowship.

Life

Jacob Collins was born on August 11, 1964, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He comes from a family of artists and scholars. His great-uncle was Meyer Schapiro.

David Yezzi David Dalton Yezzi (born 1966) is an American poet, editor, actor, and professor. He currently teaches poetry in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. Life Yezzi was born in Albany, New YorkThe New Criterion'', December 201

/ref> As a child, he started copying works by Old Masters in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. From a young age, Collins knew that he wanted to be an artist, although his interest and skill lay in a classical style that was out of favor in the late 20th century. Moving away from Modernism, he identified instead with works of 15th–19th century masters and their techniques and aesthetics. Red Head

He studied in Europe and at the

New York Studio School The New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture at 8 West 8th Street, in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York State is an art school formed in 1963 by a group of students and their teacher, Mercedes Matter, all of ...

following his graduation from

The Dalton School The Dalton School, originally the Children's University School, is a private, coeducational college preparatory school in New York City and a member of both the Ivy Preparatory School League and the New York Interschool. The school is located i ...

. He earned a BA in History from Columbia, attended the New York Academy of Art (NYAA) and the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

.John Pence Gallery biography
/ref> His teachers included painters Aaron Kurzen, Ted Seth Jacobs, and Michael Aviano and the sculptor Martine Vaugel.Art Renewal webpage
/ref> This education brought together Collins' modernist background and his classical inclinations. He also copied from the masters at the Musée du Louvre, the

Museo del Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

and the

Uffizi Gallery The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...

. After his studies, his New York studio became the center of a new evolving classical art scene. These painters worked to regain the skills and spirit of Classical art. A number of them have gone on to successful careers and leadership roles in the traditional realist art movement. ''The Paint Group'' at Hirschl & Adler Modern in New York, NY was a significant exhibition of the works of this group. During this period, Collins painted portrait commissions and started showing professionally at the

Salander-O'Reilly Galleries Lawrence B. "Larry" Salander (born 1949) is a former New York City art dealer and artist. His company, the Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, was cited by the Robb Report in 2003 as the best gallery in the world. By late 2007, Salander had been sued by nu ...

in New York City. As of March 2020, he was living and painting in his

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

townhouse. He and his wife, the writer

Ann Brashares Ann Brashares (born July 30, 1967) is an American young adult novelist. She is best known as the author of ''The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants'' series. Life and career Brashares was born in Alexandria, Virginia, and grew up in Chevy Chase, ...

, have four children.

Tutoring and schools

Jacob Collins has been teaching students of art for many years. In the 1990s, he was teaching night classes at the National Academy of Art, as well as "taking in the most promising students for private study." In the early 1990s, he founded the Water Street Atelier, which has trained dozens of artists in a classical manner. He was the director of the

, a new school in New York City and a hub of the classical revival art scene. The Grand Central Academy operated in affiliation with the

Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA) is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the appreciation and practice of traditional architecture and its allied arts by engaging with educators, professionals, students, and ...

. By the early 2000s, Collins' school was located on the ground floor of his "

carriage house hich was formerlythe headquarters of a then-traditional school called the Sculpture Center." In 2007, he created the Hudson River Fellowship. The purpose of this school is to facilitate the building of a new movement of American art, modeling itself after the artistic, social and spiritual values of the Hudson River School painters. In 2014, he opened up his largest campus yet in a -converted warehouse in

Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a residential and commercial neighborhood on the extreme western tip of Queens, a borough in New York City. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; New Calvary Cemetery in Sunnyside to the ...

, near the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

satellite PS1. The facility serves as another of Collins' art schools, as well as " an art incubator, and an artist clubhouse for at least 50 painters who have come out of Collins’s intense multiyear program over the past two decades, along with hundreds of students who now ttendhis classes and workshops."

Work

Jacob Collins's style is considered

Classical Realism Classical Realism is an artistic movement in the late-20th and early 21st century in which drawing and painting place a high value upon skill and beauty, combining elements of 19th-century neoclassicism and realism. Origins The term "Classic ...

, and his subject matter focuses on the figure, portraiture, still life and landscape as well as the occasional interior. Collins' nude figurative works, especially, reveal a point of view that is distinctly contemporary, and his setups are simple, incorporating at most a bed sheet and a length of fabric. Collins' drawings and paintings have been shown with museums and galleries in North America and Europe, and he has been commissioned to paint portraits of J. Paul Getty Jr., President

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice

Warren E. Burger Warren Earl Burger (September 17, 1907 – June 25, 1995) was an American attorney and jurist who served as the 15th chief justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Burger graduated from the William Mitchell ...

.Jacob Collins - Artist, Art - Jacob Collins
/ref> Collins is represented by Adelson Galleries (New York), the John Pence Gallery (San Francisco) and Meredith Long & Co. (Houston).

Public collections

* Fogg Art Museum,

Harvard University Art Museums The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

, Cambridge, Massachusetts * The Forbes Collection, New York *John Pence Gallery, San Francisco *Private Collection of Ann and

Gordon Getty Gordon Peter Getty (born December 20, 1933) is an American businessman and classical music composer, the fourth child of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. His mother, Ann Rork, was his father's fourth wife. When his father died in 1976, Gordon assumed ...

, California *

Mead Art Museum Mead Art Museum houses the fine art collection of Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Opened in 1949, the building is named after architect William Rutherford Mead (class of 1867), of the prestigious architectural firm McKim, Mead & White. ...

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

, Amherst, Massachusetts * Steinway Hall, New York *

The Union League Club The Union League Club is a private social club in New York City that was founded in 1863 in affiliation with the Union League. Its fourth and current clubhouse is located at 38 East 37th Street on the corner of Park Avenue, in the Murray Hill ...

, New York *

U.S. Trust Bank of America Private Bank (formerly U.S. Trust) was founded in 1853 as the United States Trust Company of New York. It operated independently until 2000, when it was acquired by Charles Schwab Corporation, Charles Schwab, and Co. and subsequ ...

, New York *The

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a Private university, private Ivy League rese ...

, Philadelphia *

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

, New Haven, Connecticut * New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut

References

External links

Jacob Collins’ Official WebsiteThe Grand Central Academy of ArtThe Hudson River Fellowship
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Jacob 1964 births Living people 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists People from the Upper East Side Columbia College (New York) alumni Painters from New York City 20th-century American male artists