Albert Henry Collings
Encyclopedia
Albert Henry Collings R.B.A, (1868-1947) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 artist most notable for his portraiture
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...

.

Life and work

Collings was born, trained, and lived all his life in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. Working in oils, water-colour, and pastel
Pastel
Pastel is an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation....

, he specialised in figure subjects and portraits, for which he received a number of official commissions. He exhibited for many years at the Royal Society of British Artists
Royal Society of British Artists
The Royal Society of British Artists is a British art body established in 1823 as the Society of British Artists, as an alternative to the Royal Academy.-History:...

, showing a total of 98 works and being elected a member in 1897. He also supported the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

 (29 works, 1896-1938) and the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours
Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours
The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours , initially called the New Society of Painters in Water Colours, , is one of the societies in the Federation of British Artists, based in the Mall Galleries in London.-History:In 1831 the society was founded as the New Society of Painters in Water...

, and showed at the Paris Salon
Paris Salon
The Salon , or rarely Paris Salon , beginning in 1725 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. Between 1748–1890 it was the greatest annual or biannual art event in the Western world...

, where he was awarded a gold medal for a portrait in 1907.

In 1911 Collings painted in oils the portrait of the Unionist MP for East Herts, Mr Abel Smith, which was presented to Abel Smith by his friends.

A picture by Collings exhibited at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery is a free-to-view municipally-owned public museum and art gallery in the city of Brighton and Hove in the South East of England...

 in 1926 attracted attention in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

 reporting:


A curious - and complimentary - little sidelight on the Autumn Exhibition of specially invited works at the Public Art Galleries, Brighton, is thrown by the intrusive effect of Coquette by Mr Albert H. Collings. It is not by any means a bad picture, and in most companies the provocative damsel in her Spanish shawl would be welcome, but somehow here she strikes a note a little too high.


Examples of his portraiture are at Harrow
Harrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...

 and in the Theatre Royal
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...

, Drury Lane, and Portsmouth Town Hall; but for such a fluent and relatively prolific artist, his work is now rare.

Painted the portrait of J.A.Harrison hon. secretary of The Eccentric Club in 1929.

Collings was a member of The Savage Club.

Exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists what was dubbed 'a pretty head' by The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

art critic in 1909.
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