James Henry Cecil Collins MBE (23 March 1908 – 4 June 1989) was an English painter and printmaker, originally associated with the Surrealist movement.
[1][2] Collins' style in centered around pagan and early christian imagery in many of his works.
The figure of the fool was an important one as well in his vision of the world and art (especially in his essay collection The Vision of the Fool), describing it as "an idealistic figure" pushing back against the "mechanic jungle of the contemporary world", representing "the poetic imagination of life, as inexplicable as the essence of life itself".
[4][5] A retrospective exhibition of his prints was held at the Tate Gallery in 1981.
[5] In honour of the centenary of his birth, an exhibition of Collins' work took place at Tate Britain in Autumn 2008.