The young mother

Collinson was one of the seven founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His first exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1847, attracted the attention of Dante Gabriel Rossetti who described Collinson as 'a born stunner'. Invited to join the Brotherhood, he became engaged to Christina Rossetti, an engagement that was short-lived after his return to Catholicism and his entry to Stonyhurst in 1850. It was principally his religion that prevented him from staying in the Brotherhood, although he failed to complete his novitiate and returned to painting in 1854.