Cecil Collins (1908 - 1989)

 

Cecil Collins was an English painter born in Plymouth whose early life was marred by physical and economic hardship. He was apprenticed to an engineering firm before winning a scholarship to the Plymouth School of Art. He also studied at the Royal School of Art from 1927 to 1931, where he won the William Rothenstein Life Drawing prize and married sculpture student Elizabeth Ramsden, in 1931. Whilst living in London  he met artists Eric Gill and David Jones. On a visit to Paris in 1933, he was introduced to the works of Paul Klee and Mark Tobey. A retrospective of his prints at the Tate Gallery in 1981, was followed by one of paintings and drawings in 1989. The painter died on 4 June 1989, during the course of this final exhibition.

 

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