John Collier, William Regester Esq Chairman, 1890s, Oil on Canvas, Framed

John Collier 1850-1934 oil painting portrait of William Regester Esq Chair of Middlesex County Council 1909-1919 Please note the delivery fee listed is just a guide, it covers within the M25 only for the UK and local Europe only for international, if you would like an accurate quote please send me your postcode and I’ll provide you with the exact price A very attractive portrait of William Regester Esquire in all his stately manor, the painting comes with a brass plaque to the bottom which reads the good mans name title and work place along with his role and duration, there is also the original frame makers label to the back and the artists label which is hard to read The painting is signed John Collier 1919 in the bottom left corner, pictures like this really add a sense of occasion and grandeur to a space, I have seen them in clients homes with no relation to the owners, just displayed because it gives the air of history and rank to the estate The condition is very good, there are some small losses to the top left on the frame otherwise I can't see any issues Dimensions Height:- 155cm Width:- 129.5cm Depth:- 9.5cm Please note all measurements are taken at the widest point, if you would like any additional or specific measurements please ask. John Maler Collier OBE ROI RP (27 January 1850 – 11 April 1934) was an English painter and writer. He painted in the Pre-Raphaelite style, and was one of the most prominent portrait painters of his generation. Both of his marriages were to daughters of Thomas Henry Huxley. He was educated at Eton College, and he studied painting in Paris with Jean-Paul Laurens and at the Munich Academy starting in 1875. Collier was from a talented and successful family. His grandfather, John Collier, was a Quaker merchant who became a member of parliament. His father, Robert (a member of parliament, Attorney General and, for many years, a full-time judge of the Privy Council) was created the first Lord Monkswell. Collier was a member of the New Society of Artists as well as the Royal Society of British Artists. He had artists' studios in his home at 7 Chelsea Embankment for the use of John and his wife Marion. John Collier's elder brother, the second Lord Monkswell, was Under-Secretary of State for War and Chairman of the London County Council. In due course, Collier became an integral part of the family of Thomas Henry Huxley PC, President of the Royal Society from 1883 to 1885. Collier married two of Huxley's daughters and was "on terms of intimate friendship" with his son, the writer Leonard Huxley. Collier's first wife, in 1879, was Marian Huxley (Mady). She was a painter who studied, like her husband, at the Slade and exhibited at the Royal Academy and elsewhere. In 1881, the couple settled in Tite Street, Chelsea, in a purpose-built studio house, alongside their friend Anna Lea Merritt. After the birth of their only child—a daughter, Joyce—Marian suffered severe post-natal depression and was taken to Paris for treatment where, however, she contracted pneumonia and died in 1887. Joyce became a portrait miniaturist and was a member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters. In 1889 Collier married Mady's younger sister Ethel Huxley. Until the Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907 such a marriage was not possible in England, so the ceremony took place in Norway. By his second wife he had a daughter and a son, Sir Laurence Collier, who was the British ambassador to Norway 1941–1951. Collier died in 1934. His entry in the Dictionary of National Biography (volume for 1931–40, published 1949) compares his work to that of Frank Holl because of its solemnity. This is only true, however, of his many portraits of distinguished old men – his portraits of younger men, women and children, and his so-called "problem pictures", covering scenes of ordinary life, are often very bright and fresh. His entry in the Dictionary of Art (1996 vol 7, p569), by Geoffrey Ashton, refers to the invisibility of his brush strokes as a "rather unexciting and flat use of paint" but contrasts that with "Collier's strong and surprising sense of colour" which "created a disconcerting verisimilitude in both mood and appearance". The Dictionary of Portrait Painters in Britain up to 1920 (1997) describes his portraits as "painterly works with a fresh use of light and colour".