Identity:

Louis Joseph Raphael Collin was a painter.

Life:

Collin studied at Saint-Louis, and then with Jules Bastien-Lepage in Verdun. This may have influenced his decision to become a painter. Moving to Paris, he entered the studio of William-Adolphe Bouguereau, followed by the atelier of Alexandre Cabanel, where his fellow pupils included Lepage, Fernand-Anne-Piestre Cormon, Aimé Nicolas Morot and Benjamin Constant. He made his début in the Salon in 1875 with Sommeil (Musée de Rouen), for which he won a second class medal. His main works include Idylle (1875; Musée d'Arras); Daphnis et Chloé (1877; Musée d'Alençon); Floréal (1886; Musée du Luxembourg); and the decorative panel Fin d'été (Sorbonne). He won the Grand prix at the Exposition Universelle of 1889 and at the Exposition Universelle in Anvers in 1894. He was appointed Officier de la Légion d'honneur in 1899 and was elected a member of the l'Institut in 1909. Harmony in Green and Rose: The Music Room (YMSM 34) may have been bought by Collin in 1894.

Bibliography:

Bénézit, E., Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, Paris, 1956-61; Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980.