Persephone: Allegory Painting

Matthew Collins was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1970. Nurtured in an artistic family, his enthusiasm for art was encouraged from the earliest age. By his early teens, his study of drawing had already begun under the tutelage of his father, James Edward Collins, an award-winning architect. Collins was accepted and studied briefly at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he focused on drawing, etching and sculpture.  He finished numerous copies from the Art Institute’s collection, including inspirational works by Goya, Ingres, Corot, Manet, Whistler and Sargent.   Matthew completed a B A in the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago.     In 1994 he traveled to Florence, Italy to finish his studies with the American painter Charles H. Cecil. For over 15 years, Matthew has been living in Italy studying and researching the classical techniques painting and sculpture. An artist of unusually wide breadth, his oil paintings, frescos and sculptures reveal a rigorous study of the masterworks of the past and a deep observation of nature.  Not limited to a single genre his oeuvre includes portraiture, landscape, decoration and figurative subjects. Matthew divides his time between Italy and Chicago. He exhibits internationally and his works represented in public and private collections throughout the United States and Europe.  He is also a contributing writer for the Epoch Times New York Edition.