A Country Kitchen

Physical description

Oil on panel depicting a scene in a country kitchen. Signed and dated by the artist.

Place of Origin

Great Britain, UK (painted)

Date

1811 (painted)

Artist/maker

William Collins, born 1788 - died 1847 (painter (artist))

Materials and Techniques

Oil on panel

Marks and inscriptions

'W Collins 181[1]'

Dimensions

Height: 29.5 cm estimate, Width: 38.4 cm estimate

Object history note

Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857

Descriptive line

Oil painting entitled 'A Country Kitchen' by William Collins. Great Britain, 1811.

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Parkinson, R., Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, London: HMSO, 1990, p. 38
The following is the full text of the entry:
"COLLINS, William, RA (1788-1847)

Born London 8 September 1788, the son of the Irish writer William Collins, author of a memoir of George Morland RA, who encouraged the boy's interest in painting. In 1807 he entered the RA schools, and exhibited his first painting there. Made his name with 'The Disposal of a Favourite Lamb' in 1813; elected ARA 1814, RA 1820. Achieved great popularity with his landscapes and, particularly, rustic genre scenes in the 1820s; Ruskin highly praised his works in the 1840s. Married in 1822 the sister of the portrait painter Margaret Carpenter. Travelled extensively in Britain and abroad, especially in Italy 1836-38; these visits are reflected in the subjects he painted. Exhibited 124 works at the RA between 1807 and 1846, and 45 at the BI 1808-43. Librarian at the RA 1840-2. Died London 17 February 1847. His studio sale was at Christie's 31 May-5 June 1847. His two sons were the novelist William Wilkie Collins and the painter Charles Allston Collins. There are watercolours and a sketchbook in the V&A collections.

LIT: William Collins 'List of Pictures and Patrons', two MS volumes 1808-27 and 1827-46, National Art Library, V&A (referred to below as Lists); Athenaeum 20 February 1847, p200 (obit); Art Journal 1847, p137 (obit); W Wilkie Collins Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq, RA 2 vols, 1848 (referred to below as Memoirs); Art Journal 1855, p 141 W. Clarke The Secret Life of Wilkie Collins 1988

A Country Kitchen
FA32 NegG1879
Panel, 29.5 x 38.4 cm (11 5/8 x 15 1/8 ins)
Signed and dated 'W Collins 181[1]'
Sheepshanks Gift 1857
Previously catalogued as 'Cottage Interior', and the date read as 1814, the final figure being unclear. However, Wilkie Collins records a 'Study of a Country Kitchen', in the possession of Sheepshanks, exhibited at the RA in 1811 as 'A Country Kitchen'. The panel is inscribed on the back 'Wm Collins Jun'; the 1811 exhibition was the last at which he was referred to as 'Junior'. An 'interior of a Kitchen' appears in the Lists under 1810; the price was £26 5s, but no purchaser's name is given. It is not recorded when the painting was acquired by Sheepshanks, and it is not included in the printed list of about 1850. The MS Register in the Department states that the female figure is 'said to be a portrait of the artist's mother'.

EXH: RA 1811 (124)

LIT: Lists; Memoirs II, p39"

Materials

Oil paint; Panel

Techniques

Oil painting

Subjects depicted

Kitchens

Categories

Paintings

Collection code

PDP