Samuel Collings

May Day in London, engraving by William Blake based on art by Samuel Collings, The Wits Magazine Vol I May 1784

Samuel Collings (fl. 1780–1790?) was a British painter and caricaturist of 18th century.

Life

He first appeared as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy in 1784, sending 'The Children in the Wood, a Sketch;' in 1785 he exhibited 'The Chamber of Genius,' which was engraved; in 1786 'The Triumph of Sensibility.' He exhibited for the last time in 1789, sending 'The Frost on the Thames, sketched on the spot.'^[1]

Collings is best known, however, as a caricaturist; he was a friend of Thomas Rowlandson, and contributed designs, which were etched by Rowlandson for some of his satirical publications, notably the satires on Johnson and Boswell's tour to the Hebrides, and on Goethe's 'Sorrows of Werter.' The original drawings for the former are in the South Kensington Museum, and have been erroneously attributed to Bunbury.^[1]

To the Wit's Magazine for 1784 Collings contributed some designs of a humorous character, which were engraved by William Blake and others. To the same magazine he contributed verses, and seems to have been as productive with his pen as with his pencil. He painted a portrait of Lord Thurlow, which was engraved by J. Condé; a picture by him, entitled 'The Disinherited Heir,' was published in aquatint by F. Jukes. It is not known when he died.^[1]

Gallery

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  May-Day in London

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  The Discomfited Duellists

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  Tythe in Kind; or the Sow's Revenge (The Wit's Magazine Vol I Feb 1784)

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  The Blind Beggars Hats

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  The Downfall of Taste and Genius

References

1. Cust 1887.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cust, Lionel Henry (1887). "Collings,_Samuel_(DNB00)". In Stephen, Leslie. Dictionary of National Biography 11. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Links

• "May-Day in London". British Museum.
• "The Discomfited Duellists". Fitzwilliam Museum.
• "The Discomfited Duellists". National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
• "William Blake's World: "A New Heaven Is Begun"". Morgan Library and Museum.