Marian Collier (painter)

Marian "Mady" Collier^[1] (née Marian Huxley; 1859–1887)^[2] also spelled as Marion Huxley,^[3] was a British 19th-century painter and is associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.^[4]

Marian Collier
Painting of Marion Collier (née Huxley), from between 1882 and 1883, by John Collier
Born	1859 London, England
Died	December 1887(1887-12-00) (aged 27–28)
Spouse	John Collier ​ (m. 1879)​

Biography

Marian Huxley was born in 1859 in London, to father Thomas Henry Huxley and mother Henrietta Anne Heathorn.^[5][6] She had seven siblings, including her brother Leonard Huxley.^[6] She studied painting at the Slade School of Fine Art in London.^[5] Her work was shown at the Royal Academy of Arts and the Grosvenor Gallery.^[5]

On 30 June 1879 Huxley married the British writer and portrait painter, John Collier, also a Slade graduate.^[1] Together they had a daughter named Joyce, their only child in 1884.^[6] After the birth of Joyce, Huxley suffered from "nervous hysteria" (possibly postpartum depression) and in November 1887 she was taken to Paris for treatment with Jean-Martin Charcot, however, she contracted pneumonia and died in December 1887.^[7] She had erratic behavior and possibly mental illness, which appeared to increase in symptoms before she died.^[8]

After Marian died, John Collier married her younger sister Emma Huxley in 1889 in Norway.^[9][10]

Collier's work can be found in museum collections, including at the National Portrait Gallery in London,^[11] and the Science Museum in London.^[3]