Albert Henry Collings

Portrait painter Albert Henry Collings was born in 1869 to decorative writer (calligrapher) and heraldic arist John Richard Collings and his wife Eliza (nee Clark). Eliza was the eldest daughter of animal painter James Clark. Albert had two older brothers and a younger sister, and the family lived at 37 Harman Street, Shoreditch, Middlesex. 

On the census return of 1891, 23 year-old Albert gives his occupation as "lithographic artist". At this time he was living in Oakley Road, Islington, with his brother Ernest, an heraldic artist.

 From 1893 Albert exhibited at the Paris Salon, and in 1896 Albert showed a portrait at the Royal Academy for the first time.  By then he had moved to 32 Great Ormond Street, London, where he shared a house with, among others, fellow artists Sidney W White and Maynard Brown. In 1897 he was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists. In 1907 he was awarded a gold medal for a portrait exhibited at the Paris Salon.

From 1909 Albert gives his address as 42 Chepstow Villas in Notting Hill. His census return of 1911 shows he is still unmarried and sharing his home with his spinster sister Emmie, and employing a cook and a housemaid. In 1913 Albert was elected to membership of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, and in 1917 he was awarded a bronze medal at the Salon des Artistes Francais.