William Collins (8 September 1788,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

– 17 February 1847, London) was an English

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

and

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

painter. His sentimental paintings of poor people enjoying nature became a posthumous high fashion, notably in the 1870s when his market price rose higher than

Constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. ''Constable'' is commonly the rank of an officer within a police service. Other peo ...

(Cromer Sands, £3780, 1872) and stayed so until 1894.

Turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters * Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for tur ...

, his model, far exceeded him in value (''The Grand Canal, Venice'', sold to Vanderbilt in 1885 for £20,000).

Life and work

Collins was born in Great Titchfield Street, London, son of William Collins Sr., an Irish-born picture-dealer and writer. He showed a great aptitude for art from an early age, and was for a while an informal pupil of George Morland. In 1807, he entered the schools of the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

(at the same time as

William Etty William Etty (10 March 1787 – 13 November 1849) was an English artist best known for his history paintings containing nude figures. He was the first significant British painter of nudes and still lifes. Born in York, he left sch ...

), and exhibited at the Academy for the first time in the same year. In 1809 he was awarded 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 80

guineas The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, from where m ...

(£88), and the next year produced the work which made him famous, ''The Sale of the Pet Lamb'', which was sold for 140 guineas (£154) and engraved by S. W. Reynolds. He now became the chief support of his family after the death of his father (in financial difficulty) and found some valuable patrons, especially Sir Thomas Freeman Heathcote, Sir John Leicester, Sir

Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850), was a British Conservative statesman who twice was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835, 1841–1846), and simultaneously was Chancellor of the Exchequer (1834–183 ...

, Sir George Beaumont, and

Lord Liverpool Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (7 June 1770 – 4 December 1828) was a British Tory statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1812 to 1827. Before becoming Prime Minister he had been Foreign Secretary, ...

. 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 coast near

Cromer Cromer ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish on the north coast of the North Norfolk district of the county of Norfolk, England. It is north of Norwich, northwest of North Walsham and east of Sheringham on the North Sea coastline. The local ...

and produced a ''Scene on the Coast of Norfolk'' which was acquired by the

Prince Regent A prince regent or princess regent is a prince or princess who, due to their position in the line of succession, rules a monarchy as regent in the stead of a monarch, e.g., as a result of the sovereign's incapacity (minority or illness) or ab ...

. In 1817 he visited

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with Leslie and

Washington Allston Washington Allston (November 5, 1779 – July 9, 1843) was an American painter and poet, born in Waccamaw Parish, South Carolina. Allston pioneered America's Romantic movement of landscape painting. He was well known during his lifetime for ...

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 about 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, sister of the portrait painter Margaret Sarah Carpenter. He continued to exhibit with popularity and travel in England and Scotland. In 1826 he painted ''The Fisherman's Departure'', (engraved by Phelps), and in 1828 made a tour of the Netherlands and Belgium, living for short time in

Boulogne Boulogne-sur-Mer (; ; ; or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Hauts-de-France, Northern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Pas-de-Calais. Boul ...

in 1836. ''Rustic Hospitality'' was painted in 1834 and in 1836 ''Sunday Morning'' and ''As Happy as a King'', the subject of the latter being suggested to Collins by the story of a country boy whose ideal of regal happiness was swinging on a gate all day and eating fat bacon. Collins painted several works with children as the primary focus, including ''Children on a Mountain Top'' (1846), with his earliest examples featuring a color palette closer to

tonalism Tonalism was an artistic style that emerged in the 1880s when Visual art of the United States, American artists began to paint landscape forms with an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist. Between 1880 and 1915, dark, neutral hues such as g ...

decades before the movement's rise to popularity in the 1880s. In September 1836, Collins left London for Italy, where he remained for two years, occupying himself with advancing his knowledge of painting, but he had to return due to illness. He then began 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'', both exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1839. They were followed in 1840–1841 by two New Testament subjects: ''Our Saviour with the Doctors in the Temple'', and ''The Two Disciples at Emmaus''. From 1840 to 1842 Collins was librarian to the Royal Academy and in 1843 moved to a large house at 1 Devonport Street, Hyde Park Gardens. In 1840 he visited

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and in 1842 the

Shetland Islands Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the Uni ...

, the latter inspiring a series of illustrations for Sir

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

's novel ''Pirate'', which appeared in the "Waverley" edition of the book. In 1846 Collins's ''Early Morning'' was exhibited.

Ruskin Ruskin may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ruskin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Ruskin (given name), a list of people Places United States * Ruskin, Florida, a census-designated place * Ruskin, Georgia, an uni ...

commented, "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 Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the S ...

such as ''The Rat-catcher'', ''Landing Fish'', ''A Street in Naples'' and ''Kentish Peasant Girls'', and did several etchings, most of which were given to the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

by Mrs. Collins, along with engravings of his best works.

Death

Collins died of heart disease, "terminating in dropsy", in Devonport Street on 17 February 1847. He was buried in the cemetery of the church of St. Mary, Paddington, where a monument in the form of a cross was erected by his widow. The grave now stands isolated, on the north side of St Marys Gardens, after the churchyard's conversion into a public park in 1881. It has been vandalised, and the marble cross is missing; the inscription is also eroding. He left two sons, the elder being the novelist William

Wilkie Collins William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for ''The Woman in White (novel), The Woman in White'' (1860), a mystery novel and early sensation novel, and for ''The Moonsto ...

, named after his godfather, who wrote a biography of his father entitled "Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq., R.A." (1848), and the younger being Charles Allston Collins, also a painter. In 1850, three years after Collins died, his widow Harriet and their sons moved to 17 Hanover Terrace, Regent's Park, next door to Collins's former patron and friend John Gibbons (1777–1851) at No. 16, and in 1856, when Collins's widow Harriet gave up No. 17, she moved next door to stay with Gibbons's widow, Elizabeth Steen.

Works

Collins exhibited at the Royal Academy every year from 1807 to 1846 (a total of 124 pictures) and showed 45 pictures at the

British Institution The British Institution (in full, the British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom; founded 1805, disbanded 1867) was a private 19th-century society in London formed to exhibit the works of living and dead artists; it ...

. His major works are listed in Volume 2 (pp. 341–352) of
Memoirs
(see Bibliography). Today his works appear in the collections at the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

and

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in En ...

in London and at other regional centres.

Gallery

File:William Collins - May Day - Google Art Project.jpg, ''

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the Northern Hemisphere's March equinox, spring equinox and midsummer June solstice, solstice. Festivities ma ...

'', 1812 File:Shrimp Boys at Cromer.png, ''Shrimp Boys at Cromer'', 1815 File:William Collins (1788-1847) - The Cherry Seller - 0010-1901 - Bury Art Museum.jpg, ''The Cherry Seller'', 1824 File:William Collins - Frost Scene - Google Art Project.jpg, '' A Frost Scene'', 1827 File:Prawn Fishing.png, ''Prawn Fishing'', 1828 File:Skittle Players (Collins).png, ''Skittle Players'', 1832 File:William Collins - Returning from the Haunts of the Seafowl - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Returning from the Haunts of the Seafowl'', 1833 File:Barmouth Sands by William Collins, 1835, Guildhall Gallery, London.JPG, '' Barmouth Sands'', 1835 File:Morning, Boulogne.jpeg, ''Morning, Boulogne'', 1844 File:Seaford, Sussex (painting).jpg, '' Seaford, Sussex'', 1844

Notes

Bibliography