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John Collier: Victorian Britain’s Darkest Artist
The horrors of the unconscious mind
Britain is not a country known for its great painters. In fact, I challenge my readers outside the UK to name one. J. M. W. Turner or John Constable are the likely choices for most people and that’s a fair claim. Both men are brilliant artists and Turner’s work especially comes alive when you stand before it. However, neither man is a patch on John Collier, one of my favourite painters, and I’m going to spend the next few minutes convincing you of his greatness.
Life
Life
Art aficionados will have heard the name John Collier. How could they not considering his extensive catalogue from the late-Victorian and Edwardian eras? He has not had the same national staying power in people’s minds as Constable and Turner.
His grandfather was a prominent Quaker and Member of Parliament, and later made Lord of Monkswell, a county in Devon in the south of England. His early life in a successful family was unremarkable. He would marry twice, both times to the daughters of famed British biologist and ‘Darwin’s Bulldog’ Thomas Henry Huxley — the man who coined the term agnostic and likely influenced Collier’s own beliefs on religion. Had it not been for his remarkable skills with a brush, John Collier would have…
