Charles John Collings (1848 - 1931)

"A painter in water-colours, he is reputed to be in some respects the finest colorist who ever worked in Canada." (1)

A prominent English and Canadian painter and draftsman, Charles John Collings was born in Chudleigh, Devonshire, England and died in Seymour Arm (on Shuswap Lake), British Columbia, where he had lived since coming to Canada in 1910. A wealthy recluse, he lived in what is even now (2015) considered a rather remote part of Canada and he chose not to associate with the Canadian art community, or for that matter with the British art community, apart from one visit to England in 1920. Instead, most of his works were sold through an intrepid British dealer who visited Collings in C...