William Collingwood had two passions in life – landscape painting and Evangelical faith. Both flourished in the Romantic environment that swept through English society from the early nineteenth century. The awareness of the tangibility of the supernatural that characterised Romantic art and literature enlivened Collingwood’s Calvinistic faith with a fervent belief in the imminent return of Christ to earth.
Drawing direct inspiration from the English pioneers of the Romantic style, Collingwood’s art is fulsomely illustrated here with more than 90 examples of his work across this volume and its companion – Faithful Artistry: the Journal of William Collingwood RWS, Vols IV-IV, 1881-1903. Collingwood’s creativity spanned eight decades, he was an accomplished and successful artist – and among the most prolific of the nineteenth century. If he never achieved the fame of an artistic celebrity he was well-connected nonetheless – a personal acquaintance of John Ruskin and other notables associated with neo-Gothicism, the Pre-Raphaelites and the Arts and Crafts Revival. As a leader among the burgeoning Christian (or ‘Plymouth’) Brethren movement Collingwood was a quiet radical, earning respect for a dogged insistence on a broad outlook in the face of narrowing trends.
This a narrative above all of the everyday – the joys and hopes, challenges and afflictions, of a serious middle-class Victorian. It offers commentary on the rapid developments of his day observed with satisfaction and appreciation; from stage coaches and pioneering steamboats to international rail travel that facilitated many visits among the mountains of Britain and Europe that were his favourite subject matter. For all who love to immerse themselves in the life and culture of another age this is a vast seam from which to mine nuggets of Victorian gold.
Volumes I – III, drawing initially on his father's journal, record William’s childhood in Greenwich and schooling in Oxford, followed by a printer's apprenticeship in London that was aborted on the realisation that he possessed artistic talent. A calling to art was confirmed by a period in Hastings as a late teenager – a time of both professional and religious significance. An 'ordained' coincidence led to a position teaching art in Liverpool where his career took root, his religious allegiance was transposed to the nascent Christian Brethren, and family life blossomed in the wake of marriage to his Swiss wife in 1851.
William Collingwood’s journals offer unparalleled insights into the artistic and religious worlds of nineteenth-century England. This first volume traces the beginnings of his career as a water-colourist, his movement into the Plymouth Brethren, and the establishment of his family life and friendship networks. Beautifully illustrated and carefully annotated, this is a definitive edition of a rich, wry and often very amusing source.
Crawford Gribben is Professor of History at Queen’s University, Belfast
The publication of William Collingwood’s diaries represents long overdue recognition of a remarkable man, whose reputation was rather unfairly eclipsed by his son, William Gersholm Collingwood, and his grandson, Robin. Shuff Yatol’s meticulous editing of Collingwood’s text, accompanied by two copiously illustrated essays, does admirable justice to it subject. In addition to walking us through his life story, he maps the interplay of Collingwood’s religious life and his growth as an artist. In Shuff Yatol’s hands the theological complexities of Victorian religious life melt away.
Howard Hull is the Director of Brantwood, Coniston. (John Ruskin's home in the Lake District