Abstract
THE death of William Gershom ColUngwood, artist, archæologist and author, at the age of seventy-eight years, took place at Coniston on Oct. 1. The son of a well-known landscape painter, W. Collingwood, he was born at Liverpool on Aug. 6, 1854, and matriculated at University College, Oxford, in 1872. While at Oxford, where he took first class honours in Literœ Humaniores, he formed a close friendship with Ruskin, then Slade professor, and when the health of the latter broke down, accompanied him abroad to France and Italy, later settling near him at Windermere. Here he occupied himself in landscape painting, editing Ruskin's works and lecturing on the theory and history of art. After Ruskin's death he was for some time professor of art at the University of Reading. In Cumberland Collingwood had come into contact with members of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiquarian Society and had been attracted to the study of Icelandic literature and the archæology of the Norse settlements in the north of England. The first fruits of his studies, however, took the form of fiction, his first novel appearing after a visit to Iceland in 1897. Ill-directed criticism of his second venture “The Bondwoman”, notwithstanding its high literary merit, diverted him to a more intensive study of the Norse and Anglian archæology of northern England, especially on its artistic side, upon which he became widely recognised as the first authority. A long series of papers in the Proceedings of the Antiquarian Society, of which he became editor, culminated in the publication of an exhaustive and standard work on “Northumbrian Crosses”(1927), in which a knowledge both wide and profound was combined with keen insight and artistic feeling. Although to the general public “The Life and Work of John Ruskin” among Collingwood's writings will be his strongest claim to remembrance, “Northumberland Crosses” is his most enduring achievement. Under his editorship the Proceedings of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiquarian Society attained a standard of technical and artistic excellence unusual among the publications of local scientific societies; and he was the inspiration and the organiser of much of the excellent work in archæological research which has been accomplished by the Society in the present century. In 1920 his work was recognised by election to the presidential chair.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mr. William G. Collingwood. Nature 130, 571–572 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130571a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130571a0