Later Victorian Portraits Catalogue
Marian Collier (née Huxley) (1859-1887), Painter; first wife of John Collier
- Gallery portraits
- All known portraits
- Biography and References
Painter; born April 1859, in London, third child of scientist Thomas Henry Huxley. [1] Prize-winning student at Slade under Alphonse Legros; [2] exhibited at Royal Academy, Grosvenor Gallery, Dudley Gallery, Liverpool, Glasgow and elsewhere 1880–84; married fellow artist John Collier 1879; her portrait sketches of Huxley, Charles Darwin and three contemporaries are in the National Portrait Gallery collection; suffered mental disorder following birth of daughter Joyce in 1884; [3]; died 19 November 1887, near Paris.
On varnishing day at the Grosvenor Gallery on 28 April 1880, Marion Collier was described as ‘looking like a bright and mischievous bacchante in nineteenth-century costume’. [4]
Dr Jan Marsh
On varnishing day at the Grosvenor Gallery on 28 April 1880, Marion Collier was described as ‘looking like a bright and mischievous bacchante in nineteenth-century costume’. [4]
Dr Jan Marsh
Footnotesback to top
[1] Originally named ‘Marian’ and known in the family as ‘Mady’, the signature on her work clearly gives ‘Marion’ as her preferred spelling; this is also used by her husband in his Sitters Book 1879–1934, copy NPG Archive.
[2] In 1883 she was listed among the ‘former Slade students’ who had ‘obtained a position of standing among the artists of the present day’: C.J. Weeks, ‘Women at Work: the Slade Girls’, MA, 1883, p.329.
[3] The Family Tree given for Huxley’s descendants shows three children – Gillian, Rupert and Joyce – but only the last appears to have survived.
[4] Diary of Blanche Lindsay, quoted Henrey 1937, p.226.
Referencesback to top
Desmond 1994–7Desmond, A., Huxley, vol.1. The Devil’s Disciple, vol.2. Evolution’s High Priest, London, 1994–7.
Henrey 1937
Henrey, Mrs R., A Century Between, London, 1937.