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MEMOIRS OF WILLIAM COLLINS, R.A.*

THE life of one of the few essentially English painters of which this country can boast, presents great interest under whatever aspect it is viewed. There is the character of the painter to be traced through its various processes of formation; and the studies by which that character was strengthened and perfected to be exhibited; there are the toils against difficulties (so frequently the lot of genius, and peculiarly that of William Collins), the accidents and sufferings which they entail, and the consolations which are derived from the pursuit of art, to be pictured forth; there is also the history of his friendly relations with those around him, which to his contemporaries, the greater part of whom are still living, must be a source of much retrospective and pleasurable reading; but above all, Mr. Wilkie Collins, the son of the distinguished artist and his biographer, has undertaken to show, and most ably has he effected his object, that the direct influence of rightly-constituted genius in the art, is to exalt and sustain personal character. In this latter point of view, the biography of William Collins will deserve the same repute that belongs to his paintings-the lesson conveyed in that simple story -the struggles against difficulties in the pursuit of knowledge, and the principles that actuated and upheld the man amidst those strugglesconstitutes at once one of the most unpretending, and yet one of the most striking, episodes of the kind.

How delightful it is to trace the boy from his first rambling sketches made in the fields between Highgate and Willesden, his studies in the yard where Morland kept his real pigs and rabbits, and his first oilpainting a picture of himself—to when the seal was set upon his future habits and character by entering as a student at the Royal Academy! The connexion of young Collins with so dissipated a master as Morland appears to have had no effect but that of awakening feelings of painful consciousness of the punishment entailed by vicious practices.

As a student at the Royal Academy his biographer tells us the future R.A.'s conduct was orderly, and his industry untiring.

Among his companions he belonged to the unassuming, steadily labouringclass-taking no care to distinguish himself, personally, by the common insignia of the more aspiring spirits among the scholars of art. He neither cul

tivated mustachio, displayed his neck, or trained his hair over his coat-collar into the true Raphael flow. He never sat in judgment on the capacity of his masters, or rushed into rivalry with Michael Angelo, before he was quite able to draw correctly from a plaster cast. But he worked on gladly and carefully, biding his time with patience, and digesting his instructions with care. 1809-two years after his entrance within the academy walls-he gained the silver medal for a drawing from the life."

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Mr. Collins began to contribute to the public exhibitions in 1808 and 1809, and whilst his first attempts presented the fundamental characteristics of careful study and anxious finish, they were also still overlaid by the timidity and inexperience of the "'prentice hand." During the

The Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq., R.A. With Selections from his Journals and Correspondence. By his son, W. Wilkie Collins. 2 vols. Longman and Co.

first few years of his progress upwards, it is amusing enough to find the artist complaining of that dark Erebus of pictorial indignity-the floor of an exhibition room, when a few brief years more, as an R.A. and a member of the hanging committee, he was in his turn subjected to the reproaches and angry recrimination of others upon the very same

score.

At this period of his life Mr. Collins enjoyed the calm uniformity of the student's career, save when his occupations were varied by a sketching excursion, or interrupted by the petty calamities which his father's increasing poverty inevitably inflicted upon the young painter's fireside. His pictures painted at this time-for the most part small in size and low in price-generally found purchasers; and though not productive of much positive profit, gained for him, what throughout life he ever valued more, the public approval and attention. The death of Mr. Collins, senior, in 1812, was a heavy blow to the young artist, and the extracts from his journal attest how his hopes of success were crushed for some time by this heavy affliction. Every article of furniture was sold to satisfy impatient creditors; even the small relics sacred to him for his father's sake, had to be bought in. But the future R.A. had already both friends and wealthy patrons, and at this first dawn of his career, Mrs. Hand stands honourably forth in the one position, and Sir Thomas Heathcote nobly prominent in the other.

The Sale of the Pet Lamb," composed as it was during the season immediately following his father's death, displayed in its simple yet impressive pathos, the temper of the artist's mind at the period of its production, and it pleased at once and universally. The success of this picture at once indeed eclipsed the more moderate celebrity of all his previous works. Collins now felt that the Academy and the lovers of art were watching his progress with real interest, and he determined to fulfil the expectations forming of him on all sides. His " Birdcatcher Outwitted," his "Burial Place of a Favourite Bird," and other pictures, were quickly followed by the "Blackberry Gatherers," and the "Birdcatchers," the latter of which proved the artist's mastery over a higher branch of art than he had before attempted. This work was purchased by the Marquis of Lansdowne; but the painter derived from his success a yet greater benefit than exalted patronage, and mounted the first step towards the highest social honours of English art, by being elected an Associate of the Royal Academy.

Mr. Collins's diaries of this period in his life exhibit, in a rare degree, his incessant anxiety to improve.

February 1st.-"How much better informed should I be at this moment if I had written down all the observations I have heard from the painters with whom I have conversed-at least a selection. This should be done as soon after the impression as possible; otherwise, there is danger of making them your own."

A painter should choose those subjects with which most people associate pleasant circumstances. It is not sufficient that a scene pleases him. The waving line and graceful playfulness of the joints of children, closely imitated, would immortalise the painter who should persevere in his observations on them-which he may ad infinitum. Sparkle may be obtained without glazing, &c., &c.

This will give an idea of his diligence in improving himself by obser

vation, study, and reflection; but the same diaries are far more remarkable for the proof which they afford of the close dependence of intellectual success on moral worth, and the advantages of cultivating the one for the sake of the other. Here are a few examples, taken almost at random.

Sentiment in pictures can only be produced by a constant attention to the food given to the painter's mind. A proper dignity and proper respect for oneself is the only shield against the loathsomeness of vulgarity. Again, on being elected an associate at the Academy, the following entry occurs: "To aim greatly at reformation in the leading features of my private character-the little weaknesses that almost escape detection, and which, notwithstanding their pettiness, seem to be the obstructing cause to all dignity of character in an artist or a man. This improvement is not to be made by ridiculous and hasty resolutions, but by private reflections. The result, and not the means, ought to be seen."

These are principles of action worthy of all commendation. They might, indeed, be treasured up with advantage by many a votary of the graphic muse. The painter's circle of friends now began to widen. Men of genius and reputation sought his acquaintance, and Mr. Collins's capacity for humour brought him into especial contact with Elliston and James Smith, the elder, one of the authors of "Rejected Addresses."

Between James Smith and the painter a good-humoured reciprocation of jests of all sorts was the unfailing accompaniment of most of their meetings. The latter, however, in some instances, gained the advantage of his friend, by calling in the resources of his art to the aid of his fancy,-as an example of which may be quoted his painting on the boarded floor of his study, while Smith was waiting in the next room, a new pen, lying exactly in the way of any one entering the apartment. As soon as the sketch was finished, the author was shown in, and stopping short at the counterfeit resemblance, with an exclamation at his friend's careless extravagance, endeavoured to pick it up. A few days afterwards, with the recollection of this deception strong in his memory, Smith called again on the painter, and found him working on a picture with unusual languor and want of progress. Anxious to take the first opportunity to return the jest, of which he had been the victim, Smith inquired, in tones of great interest, how his friend was getting on? The other replied that he was suffering under so severe a headache as to be almost incapable of working at all. "Ah," said Smith, "I see why you have not got on; you are using a new material today-painting in dis-temper.”

An excursion which Collins made in the autumn of 1815, to Cromer, in Norfolk, suddenly urged him to a remarkable progress in art, and he found himself standing by the after-source of no inconsiderable portion of his future popularity, as, sketch-book in hand, he looked for the first time over the smooth expanse of Cromer sands. Writing from hence, Collins says, in one of his letters, "the sharpness of the air, or some other quality of this place, certainly tends to give a smartness to the people, surpassing the inhabitants of any locality I was ever in before. This, however, induces more equality, or attempts at it, in the common people, than is strictly consonant with my feelings." We must, we suppose, consider the following as an illustration, but to our minds it shows only the busy sympathies of fine and generous natures.

Having made a careful study of some boats and other objects on the beach, which occupied him the greater part of the day, towards evening, when he was preparing to leave, the sun burst out low in the horizon, producing a very beau

tiful, although totally different effect on the same objects; and, with his usual enthusiasm, he immediately set to work again, and had sufficient light to preserve the effect. The fishermen seemed deeply to sympathise with him at this unexpected and additional labour, as they called it; and endeavoured to console him by saying, " Well, never mind, sir; every business has its troubles."

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This Collins ventured on a domestic change of some importance, a removal from his small house in Great Portland Street to a more

eligible abode in New Cavendish Street. Whether it was the expenses of the change or association with those "joyousest of once embodied spirits," whose habits and irregularities he so uncompromisingly rebuked in his diaries, certain it is that gradual disorder was at this period fast invading his worldly resources. Witness an extract from the diary of April 13th, 1816.

Chatted with a visitor till twelve, when I posted this dreary ledger, on a dreary black-looking April day, with one sixpence in my pocket, 7001. in debt, shabby clothes, a fine house, a large stock of my own handiworks, a certainty (as much, at least, a certainty as any thing short of a "bird in hand" can be) of about a couple of hundreds, and a determination unshaken-and, please God, not to be shook by any thing-of becoming a great painter, than which I know no greater name.

It was under these distressing circumstances that he applied for the first time to Sir Thomas Heathcote for an advance of money, with which he proceeded to Hastings, to make further studies on the coast, for the scenery and incidents of which he evidently felt that bias which undoubtedly led in the first place to his highest celebrity as a painter. The sojourn at Hastings appears, however, not only to have done the artist good, in producing a change in his style, but also morally so, for on his return to London in October, his diary is mainly occupied in recording his resolutions to abstain from compliance with desires that were calculated to weaken his faculties. He appears also to have changed his former friends for the more estimable companionship of Wilkie, Leslie, and others.

The success of his two pictures exhibited at the Academy, the results of his studies at Hastings, "Fishermen coming Ashore before Sunrise,” and "Sunrise," was so great as to fill the painter with hopes of retrieving all his embarrassments, and even led him to indulge in a brief excursion to Paris.

This trip to Paris was, however, followed by a recurrence of pecuniary difficulties, out of which he was again helped by his generous patron, Sir Thomas Heathcote. Business was, nevertheless, on the increase; the Prince-Regent had testified his admiration of the artist by the purchase of a sea-piece and an introduction to Lord Liverpool not only opened Fife House and Combe Wood to him, as an ever welcome guest, but was also the means of making him known to the present possessor of some of his finest pictures-Sir Robert Peel. A visit made the same year (1818) to Sir George Beaumont's at the Lakes, and continued as far as Edinburgh, also brought the rising artist into connexion with Southey and other distinguished northerns.

In 1820, Mr. Collins was elected royal academician, and in 1822, on the occasion of a visit to Edinburgh, made in the company of Sir David Wilkie, and at the time of the visit of George IV., he was wedded by Dr. Alison, the author of an Essay on Taste," to Miss Eddes. In

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1826 the artist removed to Hampstead Hill; and in 1830, to Bayswater. No sooner at the latter place, than he took it into his head to study skittle-playing at Wales's gardens; the result of which was one of his most successful paintings illustrative of that rural English game. In 1836, the artist repaired with his wife and family to Italy; and it was when at Sorrento, after a long day's sketching, that he was seized with shivering and sickness, which illness laid the seeds of that fatal complaint of the heart, under which he sank in 1847, not, however, until after he had endeavoured to rally his constitution by the bracing air and stirring life of Northern Scotland and the Shetland Islands.

Collins's life had undoubtedly its vicissitudes, such as are common to humanity, but, taking it all in all, he had his fair share of enjoyments and triumphs. The pecuniary difficulties of his youth were got over with rare perseverance and energy; his domestic happiness was almost unchequered; he travelled much, and with successful purpose; and the friendships of the meridian of his life, chosen with taste and discretion, lasted till the close. The last moments of this great and good man were as touching as every little incident in his career.

As a painter, Mr. Collins was undoubtedly original in his genius— his style was wholly and entirely his own-the offspring of a mind working out its genuine conceptions from Nature, and producing works that occupy their own separate position among the original contributions of our countrymen to Art. His works display him as a painter of the coast and cottage life and scenery of England; of the people and landscape of Italy; of Scripture subjects; and of portraits. Notwithstanding the success that attended the efforts of his pencil when diffused over so wide a field of art, we still side with those who regretted that he should ever have relinquished his first popular and national range of subjects for the study of Raphael and Michael Angelo, and the ambition to produce scriptural paintings. His son and biographer himself acknowledges that it will be by those productions by which he first won his reputation, that he will in future years be longest recollected and best known.

His representation of the coast, and cottage life, and scenery of his native land, were formed in their very nature to appeal to the liveliest sympathies of his countrymen, were associated in the public mind with the longest series of successes in the art, and, as most directly and universally connected with his name, must be ranked-however excelled in actual pictorial value by his works on other subjects-as first in asserting his claim to be remembered as one of the eminent painters of the eminent English school.

We have, indeed, reason to be proud of the name, and this biography, we feel proud of the man who bore it.

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The first picture sold by Collins was in 1807, "A Study from Nature on the Thames ;" and it fetched four guineas. One of his pictures sold in the last year of his labours, "Early Morning," fetched 400 guineas. The catalogue of his performances contain an account of pictures sold to the amount of some 23,000l. or 24,000, which is not a bad example of the encouragement of our native school when there are merit and genius to deserve it.

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