Thomas Collier

Thomas Collier by Frederick Wedmore

Thomas Collier, English landscape painter born 1840 at Glossop, Derbyshire, died at fifty-one, after addressing himself early to landscape painting on the model of David Cox and working almost exclusively in water-colour. Mastery came in early manhood, with no prolonged apprenticeship, and his drawings, seemingly narrow in subject, in fact recorded rich, poetic variations of English weather, farm, coast, and moor. His work earned him the Legion of Honour's chevalier decoration and membership in the Royal Institute of Painters in Water-Colours, though wide public recognition lagged behind his deserved standing.

By Frederick Wedmore · First published 1899 · Genre: Biography, Art History, Eulogy · 472 words

First lines

English landscape art -- the practice of which he had adorned by five-and-twenty years of noble work -- sustains a profound loss in the death of Thomas Collier. He was born in the year 1840, at Glossop, on the Derbyshire border. He early addressed himself to the career of a landscape painter; and it is true, no doubt, that his method was founded upon that of David Cox, nor is it possible that he could have set up for himself a better model of delicacy of observation, and of decisive and economical handwork. And the medium of Collier was -- like that of David Cox -- almost exclusively water-colour. His oil paintings were few, and, like Cox's, they were executed chiefly in his later time. But, with him, the later time was still only middle age. Collier died when he was fifty-one: David Cox at seventy-six. Had David Cox left us at the age of Collier, he would hardly have been remembered to-day, and could have been an example to no one. Collier passed through no such prolonged period of preparation for mastery. He was already a master in his early manhood. His work cannot well be divided into periods: freedom of manner, largeness of vision and touch, belonged to him almost from the first. To the quite superficial observer of his drawings, it appeared that he painted only two or three subjects, and these on the same grey day. But to the real student of his work, the richness and variety of his resource is revealed. He observed and recorded differences of weather and light which escape all casual and all untrained notice; and if he was among the simplest and most vigorous, he was also among the most poetic recorders of English countryside and homestead -- of farm, and coast, and moor.

Similar titles

Genres

Tags

English landscape painting · Water-colour painting · Landscape painters · Derbyshire · English countryside · Farm landscapes · Coastal landscapes · Moorland · Weather observation · Light observation · Artistic mastery · Underappreciation

What this Textopian page supports

Thomas Collier is listed on Textopian as an essay by Frederick Wedmore, dated 1899 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

Good citation fit

More by Frederick Wedmore