The Fools of Summer, 1954

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Cecil Collins (1908–1989)

SKU: 13020

Presentation:
framed

Size:
Height – 53cm x Width – 65cm

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DESCRIPTION

Provenance:
Gifted in 1991 by Elizabeth Collins, Cecil’s wife to a close family friend.

Gouache, signed and dated by the artist.

Exhibited at the Society of Mural Painters exhibition, Victoria and Albert Museum, London in 1954

Dimensions : Framed 53cm x 65 cm (unframed 37cm x 51cm)

For Collins, the “Fool” was not a comic figure but a timeless archetype: the visionary outsider, innocent yet wise, attuned to imagination rather than reason. In The Fools of Summer, a procession of stylised figures moves through a dreamlike landscape under the heat of a crimson sky. The season of abundance becomes a metaphor for creative excess, folly and revelation. With its rich colour and ritualistic atmosphere, the work reflects Collins’s belief in art as a spiritual journey, where the Fool embodies the enduring power of wonder.

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THE ARTIST

Cecil

Collins

1908–1989

Born in Plymouth in 1908, Cecil Collins overcame early hardship to become a renowned British painter. After art school, he married sculptor Elisabeth Ramsden and had his first exhibition in 1935, showcasing his mystical approach. Influenced by figures like Paul Klee and Mark Tobey, and movements such as Surrealism and German Expressionism, Collins began his significant “Fools” series while teaching at Dartington Hall.

His career saw the publication of a monograph and his own text, The Vision of the Fool, cementing his ties to visionary Neo-Romanticism. Collins had major retrospectives at the Whitechapel Gallery (1959) and the Tate Gallery (1989), the latter coinciding with his death. He also undertook religious commissions and was awarded the MBE in 1979.

MORE PICTURES BY ARTIST

SKU: 13020

Cecil Collins (1908–1989)

The Fools of Summer, 1954

SKU: 13019

Cecil Collins (1908–1989)

Cecil Collins – Self Portrait