- 420
James Collinson
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Description
James Collinson
1825-1881
the holy family
signed twice and indistinctly dated l.r.: J.Collinson/J.Collinson 1878 (?); inscribed on an old label on the reverse by Robert V. Collinson
oil on canvas, arched top
110.5 by 85 cm., 43 1/2 by 33 1/2 in.
James Collinson was a profoundly religious man, having converted to Roman Catholicism in the late 1840s. In the early 1850s he was at Stonyhurst as a novitiate for the priesthood, but he abandoned this purpose before the two-year training was complete.
Collinson painted and drew a number of Biblical and other Christian subjects in the course of his career. In 1850 he contributed a poem entitled 'The Child Jesus - A record typical of the Five Sorrowful Mysteries' and accompanying illustrations to the second issue of The Germ. The following year, soon after his resignation as a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he exhibited The Renunciation of St Elizabeth of Hungary (Johannesberg Art Gallery) at the Portland Gallery. Later, in the 1860s, he painted a series of works showing the activities of nuns, commencing with A Sister of Nazareth and a Blind Woman, exhibited in 1867, while two years later he showed Sisters of Charity teaching Blind Girls to Sing. Both of these paintings and others of similar subjects belonged to the Sisters of Charity, whose convent in London was in Manchester Square in Marylebone. Most of these paintings were disposed of at auction in 1894, although one particular work, entitled Interior of St Joseph's Home for Aged and Infirm Poor, Bayswater came to light again some years ago and was re-purchased to hang in the Mother House of the Order in France.
Collinson's The Holy Family was painted in Brittany in 1878, where he seems to have spent much of his time in the last few years of his life (although in fact he died in London in January 1881). He may have undertaken it as a present for his artist's son Robert, then aged nineteen, when he joined a Catholic seminary in Rennes. Valerie Cox has observed that 'the style of this painting is closer to that of the early works of the P.R.B. than any of his other later paintings, both in the naturalistic flowers in the foreground and the view of a fortified town - perhaps St Malo - in the background.' Robert Collinson bequeathed the painting to the
Sisters of Mercy.
The label on the reverse written by Robert V.Collinson reads as follows:
'This is to certify that this picture of The Holy Family was painted by my father the late James Collinson, one of the original Pre-Raphaelite Brothers and late member of the Society of British Artists who had a gallery in Suffolk Street.'
Literature:
Valerie A. Cox, 'The Works of James Collinson: 1825-1881', The Review of the Pre-Raphaelite Society, vol.IV, no.3, 1996, p.12
1825-1881
the holy family
signed twice and indistinctly dated l.r.: J.Collinson/J.Collinson 1878 (?); inscribed on an old label on the reverse by Robert V. Collinson
oil on canvas, arched top
110.5 by 85 cm., 43 1/2 by 33 1/2 in.
James Collinson was a profoundly religious man, having converted to Roman Catholicism in the late 1840s. In the early 1850s he was at Stonyhurst as a novitiate for the priesthood, but he abandoned this purpose before the two-year training was complete.
Collinson painted and drew a number of Biblical and other Christian subjects in the course of his career. In 1850 he contributed a poem entitled 'The Child Jesus - A record typical of the Five Sorrowful Mysteries' and accompanying illustrations to the second issue of The Germ. The following year, soon after his resignation as a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he exhibited The Renunciation of St Elizabeth of Hungary (Johannesberg Art Gallery) at the Portland Gallery. Later, in the 1860s, he painted a series of works showing the activities of nuns, commencing with A Sister of Nazareth and a Blind Woman, exhibited in 1867, while two years later he showed Sisters of Charity teaching Blind Girls to Sing. Both of these paintings and others of similar subjects belonged to the Sisters of Charity, whose convent in London was in Manchester Square in Marylebone. Most of these paintings were disposed of at auction in 1894, although one particular work, entitled Interior of St Joseph's Home for Aged and Infirm Poor, Bayswater came to light again some years ago and was re-purchased to hang in the Mother House of the Order in France.
Collinson's The Holy Family was painted in Brittany in 1878, where he seems to have spent much of his time in the last few years of his life (although in fact he died in London in January 1881). He may have undertaken it as a present for his artist's son Robert, then aged nineteen, when he joined a Catholic seminary in Rennes. Valerie Cox has observed that 'the style of this painting is closer to that of the early works of the P.R.B. than any of his other later paintings, both in the naturalistic flowers in the foreground and the view of a fortified town - perhaps St Malo - in the background.' Robert Collinson bequeathed the painting to the
Sisters of Mercy.
The label on the reverse written by Robert V.Collinson reads as follows:
'This is to certify that this picture of The Holy Family was painted by my father the late James Collinson, one of the original Pre-Raphaelite Brothers and late member of the Society of British Artists who had a gallery in Suffolk Street.'
Literature:
Valerie A. Cox, 'The Works of James Collinson: 1825-1881', The Review of the Pre-Raphaelite Society, vol.IV, no.3, 1996, p.12