Biography for James Collinson

Employment

Artist. Son of a bookseller and printer, Collinson was living in London by 1846 and entered the Royal Academy Schools. He is one of the least known painter members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Collinson was proposed by D. G. Rossetti (1828-1882) as a member of the Brotherhood. A convert to Roman Catholicism, he returned to the Church of England to be accepted as Christina Rossetti's fiancé. In 1850 the engagement ended and Collinson resigned from the Brotherhood following a reversion to the Catholic faith on the grounds that he could not 'as a Catholic, assist in spreading the artistic opinions of those who are not.'

Collinson entered the Jesuit College at Stonyhurst in 1853 to train as a priest, but abandoned this in 1855. There is evidence to suggest he was painting during this time, and he exhibited again at Royal Academy from 1855. He is best known for his domestic genre subjects such as For Sale (also known as The Empty Purse), 1857. He provided pictures for the Exhibition of British Art which toured America 1857-1858.

Collinson married Eliza Wheeler in 1858, apparently the sister-in-law of Catholic painter J. R. Herbert (1810-1890), and died of pneumonia.