Artist, Author. Born in Hampstead, North London, he was the second son of William Collins, R.A., who is buried in St, Mary's Church in Paddington Green. Like his elder brother, the author William Wilkie Collins, Charles was named after a painter, Washington Allston of Massachusetts. He studied at the Royal Academy Schools and, in 1847, exhibited two portraits at the Royal Academy. Collins was proposed for membership of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood by Millais, and was supported by Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and F.G. Stephens, but Thomas Woolner and W.M. Rossetti objected to his joining the Brotherhood, and he was rejected. At about the same time, he fell in love with Maria Rossetti, but she rejected him, too. He exhibited several more pictures at the Royal Academy, the best-known of which are "Convent Thoughts" and "The Devout Childhood of St. Elizabeth of Hungary." In the late 1850s, however, he abandoned painting in favour of writing. In addition to two novels, he wrote "The Eye Witness" (1860), a collection of humorous essays, and "A Cruise Upon Wheels" (1862), about his travels in France. Both of these were serialised in Charles Dickens' magazine, "All the Year Round." In the Summer of 1860, he married Dickens' younger daughter, Kate; and, in 1870, he designed the cover to the monthly installments of Dickens' final and unfinished novel, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood." Three years later, he died after a protracted illness.
Artist, Author. Born in Hampstead, North London, he was the second son of William Collins, R.A., who is buried in St, Mary's Church in Paddington Green. Like his elder brother, the author William Wilkie Collins, Charles was named after a painter, Washington Allston of Massachusetts. He studied at the Royal Academy Schools and, in 1847, exhibited two portraits at the Royal Academy. Collins was proposed for membership of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood by Millais, and was supported by Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and F.G. Stephens, but Thomas Woolner and W.M. Rossetti objected to his joining the Brotherhood, and he was rejected. At about the same time, he fell in love with Maria Rossetti, but she rejected him, too. He exhibited several more pictures at the Royal Academy, the best-known of which are "Convent Thoughts" and "The Devout Childhood of St. Elizabeth of Hungary." In the late 1850s, however, he abandoned painting in favour of writing. In addition to two novels, he wrote "The Eye Witness" (1860), a collection of humorous essays, and "A Cruise Upon Wheels" (1862), about his travels in France. Both of these were serialised in Charles Dickens' magazine, "All the Year Round." In the Summer of 1860, he married Dickens' younger daughter, Kate; and, in 1870, he designed the cover to the monthly installments of Dickens' final and unfinished novel, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood." Three years later, he died after a protracted illness.
Bio by: Iain MacFarlaine
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