American, b. 1964

Regarded as a Classical Revivalist, Jacob Collins is a New York City native. At an early age, he began sketching Old Master pictures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where his grandmother used to take him. Collins received his formal training at New York Studio School and Columbia University, and in 1987 to learn the Old Masters Techniques, he attended the New York Academy of Art. He went on to study at the Ecole Albert Defois in France. While his work is a contrast to abstraction, Collins states that he aims to "paint with the skills of past masters while still feeling fresh."

He has painted portraits of esteemed leaders such as J. Paul Getty Jr., George H.W. Bush, and Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger, but he is also adept at painting landscapes and still-lifes. His works reveal a clear knowledge of draftsmanship along with a dramatic use of darkness and illumination and meticulous observation.

He has taught at the New York Academy of Art and the National Academy School of Fine Arts in New York City. In his teaching, Collins looks to classical Greek culture as well as the Renaissance and the 19th Century and pursues a rigorous course that begins with students drawing from plaster casts and careful study of anatomy and figure drawing.

In 1990, he had his first solo exhibition at the Union League in New York City. Collins has been the subject of over 20 solo exhibitions, and his work is represented in numerous prestigious public and private collections including Harvard's Fogg Art Museum and Amherst's Mead Art Museum, among others.

Education
1982-90 Museum copying: Metropolitan, Louvre, Prado, Uffizi,
1988-89 Art Students League, New York, NY
1988-89 École Albert Defois, Les Cerqueux Sous Passavant, France
1987-88 New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
1986 B.A., Columbia College, New York, NY
1983-85 New York Studio School, New York, NY

Solo Exhibitions
2009
Jacob Collins: Recent Paintings, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2008
Rediscovering the American Landscape: The Eastholm Project, Hirschl & Adler
Modern, New York, NY

2007
Jacob Collins: New Still Lifes, Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, NY

2006
Jacob Collins: Figures, Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, NY

2005
Jacob Collins, Meredith Long & Company, Houston, TX

2004
Jacob Collins: Recent Paintings, Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, NY

2002
Jacob Collins: Plein-air Sketches, Spanierman Gallery, New York, NY

2001
Jacob Collins: Recent Works, Meredith Long & Company, Houston, TX
Paintings of Provence, Nall Foundation, Vence, France

2000
Jacob Collins: Recent Oil Paintings & Drawings, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Recent Paintings by Jacob Collins, Spanierman Gallery, New York, NY

1999
Jacob Collins, Meredith Long & Company, Houston, TX

1998
Recent Paintings by Jacob Collins, Spanierman Gallery, New York, NY

1997
Jacob Collins: Recent Oil Paintings, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Jacob Collins, Meredith Long & Company, Houston, TX

1996
Jacob Collins: Recent Oil Paintings, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1995
Jacob Collins: Recent Paintings, Meredith Long & Company, Houston, TX
Jacob Collins: Recent Oil Paintings, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1994
Jacob Collins: Recent Works, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1993
Recent Paintings by Jacob Collins, Gallery One, Toronto, Canada

1992
Jacob Collins, Meredith Long & Company, Houston, TX
Jacob Collins, Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York, NY

1990
Jacob Collins: Recent Paintings, The Union League Club, New York, NY

Selected Group Exhibitions
2009
A Figural Presence, Alva deMars Megan Chapel Art Center, Saint Anselm College, Manchester, NH

2008
Observations in Nature, A Classical Approach to Landscape Painting: Jacob Collins,
Donald Demers. William R. Davis, Nicholas Hiltner, Joseph McGurl and Travis Schlaht,
Tree’s Place Gallery, Orleans, MA
Rarity Summer Salon Show, Rarity Gallery, Myconos, Greece
Drawings Exhibition, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
The Water Street Atelier: 2002-2007, Meredith Long & Co., Houston, TX

2007
About Face: Portraiture Now, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA

2006
Slow Painting: A Deliberate Renaissance, Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
The Water Street Atelier, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2004
Realism Now: Traditions and Departures, Mentors and Protégés,Vose Galleries, Boston, MA

2003
Views of Balleroy: The Water Street Atelier, The Forbes Galleries,New York, NY

2003
Exposed: The Nude, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2002
Still-Lifes, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2001
Water Street Atelier, Meredith Long & Company, Houston, TX
New York Realists Now, Galerie Albert Benamou, Paris, France
On Location Coast to Coast: Small Works by Nine Americans, Tree’s Place Gallery, Orleans, MA

2001
Winter Salon, Derriere Guard, New York, NY
The Figure, Tree’s Place Gallery, Orleans, MA

2000
Scapes: Air, City, Land, Sea, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Still Lifes, Florals, and Trompe l’Oeil, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
The New Masters, Grenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
American Arcadia, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, NY
Artists of America, Colorado History Museum, Denver, CO
New York Classicism Now, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, NY
Sketches of Spain: The Water Street Atelier, Grenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY

1999
Drawings, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA,
New Realism for a New Millennium, Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY
Trompe l’Oeil; Art and Illusion, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
The Paint Group, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, NY
The Water Street Atelier, Meredith Long & Company, Houston, TX

1997
Landscapes, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Still Lifes and Florals, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
The Artist’s World, Tree’s Place Gallery, Orleans, MA

1996
Figures and Interiors, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Still Lifes and Florals, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1995
Tradition: American Realism, Past and Present, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Yanks Paint Brits, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, NY
Re-presenting Representation, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY

1993
New Artists, John Pence Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Landscape, Small Works, Meredith Long & Company, Houston, TX
Small Works, J.N. Bartfield Gallery, New York, NY
169th Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, NY

1992
Gallery Selections, Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, Beverly Hills, CA
Eight Alumni, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY

1991
Figurative Painting, Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, Beverly Hills, CA
Inaugural Exhibition, Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, Berlin, Germany

1984
Eight from the Met, Copyists from the Metropolitan Museum, Washington Heights Gallery, NY

Teaching
Founder and Instructor of Hudson River Fellowship, Hunter, NY
Founder and Director of The Grand Central Academy of Art, at the ICA&CA, New York, NY
Founder and Director of Water Street Atelier, New York, NY
National Academy of Design, New York, NY
Portrait Society of America, Lecturer and Demonstrator
New York Academy of Art, New York, NY

Selected Collections
Yale University, New Haven CT
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, MA
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, MA
U.S. Trust Co., New York, NY
Union League Club, New York, NY
Steinway Hall, New York, NY
The Forbes Collection, New York, NY