Cecil Collins

Cecil Collins, MBE (1908 – 1989) was born in Plymouth, UK to Cornish parents. Collins began his adulthood as a mining engineer at the age of 15, but soon escaped to art school with the aid of scholarships. He met his wife Elisabeth, a fellow artist who appears in many of his paintings, at the Royal College of Art. Atypical in 1930’s London, Collins scorned the concept of ‘art for art’s sake’, asserting that art is a metaphysical experience which must engage with the whole of human nature. Although his early years were influenced by Surrealism, he later distanced himself, claiming: “I do not believe in surrealism, precisely because I do believe in surreality, universal and eternal above and beyond the world of intellect and senses, but not beyond the reach of humility and the hunger of the human heart.” Collins had a particular gift for teaching and his unusual pedagogy attracted many devoted students. A painter, illustrator, tapestry and stained glass designer, Collins remained artistically isolated for most of his life, abjuring ‘movements’; his greatest recognition came after his death. Both his writings and his archetypal figures – the Fool, the Angel and the Sybil – evoke a 20th-century Blake, shaped by a Neo-Platonic Christianity.