  About the Artwork
  
  
  Although never a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Charles Allston Collins adhered to their stated mission of selecting subjects that conveyed “heartfelt” ideas rendered through the close study of nature. Here, he portrays the exemplary piety of Elizabeth of Hungary, who, when arriving at the church before the priests had opened the door, fell to her knees at the threshold to begin her devotions. While the story of the thirteenth-century saint derives from Alban Butler’s The Lives of the Saints (1756–59), the visual details—from the wooden door’s grain to the shot silk dress—reflect Collins’s accurate observations of his visual world. He also adopted the arduous Pre-Raphaelite practice of painting on a white wet ground to heighten his brilliant colors. Collins’s career was brief; his failure to attract clients prompted him to turn to writing, but he was overshadowed by the success of his novelist brother Wilkie Collins. 
 
From Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 89 (2015)
  
  
  Title
  The Devout Childhood of St. Elizabeth of Hungary
  
  
  Artwork Date
  between 1851 and 1852
  
  Artist
  Charles Allston Collins
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1828-1873
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  British
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Oil on canvas
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 35 3/4 × 23 3/4 inches (90.8 × 60.3 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  European Painting
  
  
  Credit
  Museum Purchase, Ernest and Rosemarie Kanzler Foundation Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2015.29
  
  
  Copyright
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