John Collier: The Complete Story
John Collier, 1850 to 1934, was one of the leading British portrait painters of his time, but we remember him for serpents and seductresses. His Lilith, with a snake coiled around a naked woman, and his Lady Godiva are among the most reproduced images of late Victorian art.
His private life was as dramatic as his canvases. He married two sisters, which was illegal in England, so he did it abroad. Here is the full story.
The portrait painter we remember for myths
Collier earned his living painting the great and good of Victorian Britain, scientists, statesmen and society figures. He even wrote textbooks on how to paint a portrait.
Yet his fame today rests on his literary and mythic pictures: temptresses, legends and moments of high drama.
A late Pre Raphaelite
Collier worked in the wake of the Pre Raphaelites, the British painters who loved sharp detail, rich color and stories from poetry and myth.
He gave that taste a polished, academic finish. His surfaces are smooth, his subjects theatrical, his women often dangerous.
The scandal: marrying two sisters
Collier married Marian Huxley, daughter of the famous scientist Thomas Henry Huxley. She died in 1887.
He then fell in love with her sister Ethel. In England, marrying a dead wife's sister was illegal at the time, so the couple wed in Norway in 1889. It caused a quiet scandal, and tied Collier even closer to one of the great families of Victorian science.
How to read a Collier
Look for the story and the stare. His nude subjects are usually femmes fatales, women with power over men, painted with cool precision.
His portraits are sober and exact. The myth pictures are where he let the drama loose.
Three pictures that made his name
First, Lilith of 1887, the first wife of Adam in Jewish legend, shown entwined with a serpent.
Second, Lady Godiva of 1897, the noblewoman who rode naked through Coventry in protest, now in that city's museum.
Third, his literary scenes from Tannhauser and other tales, where temptation always lurks.
The myth of the mere society painter
Because he painted so many respectable portraits, Collier is sometimes dismissed as a safe establishment hand.
The Lilith and the Godiva tell a different story. He had a real appetite for myth, danger and the female figure as a force to be reckoned with.
Where to find his myths
The Tate holds work by Collier. His Lady Godiva is at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry.
Tied to the house of science
Through his two marriages into the Huxley family, Collier sat inside the world of Victorian science. His father in law, Thomas Henry Huxley, was Darwin’s fiercest champion.
He painted many of the era’s thinkers and leaders, and wrote practical books on how to paint a portrait. The respectable scientist’s friend and the painter of serpents and seductresses were the same man.
John Collier, a few common questions
When was John Collier born? In 1850 in London. He died there in 1934.
What is he famous for? His Lilith and Lady Godiva, and his Victorian society portraits.
Was he a Pre Raphaelite? A late follower, blending their love of myth with a polished academic finish.
What was the scandal? He married his late wife's sister, illegal in England, so they wed in Norway.
Where can I see his work? The Tate, and the Herbert in Coventry for Lady Godiva.
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