Marian "Mady" Collier[1] (née Marian Huxley; 1859–1887)[2] also spelled as Marion Huxley, was a British 19th-century painter and is associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.[3]
Marian Huxley was born in 1859 in London, to father Thomas Henry Huxley and mother Henrietta Anne Heathorn.[4][5] She had seven siblings, including her brother Leonard Huxley.[5] She studied painting at the Slade School of Fine Art in London.[4] Her work was shown at the Royal Academy of Arts and the Grosvenor Gallery.[4]
On 30 June 1879 Huxley married the British writer and portrait painter, John Collier, also a Slade graduate.[1] Together they had a daughter named Joyce, their only child in 1884.[5] After the birth of Joyce, Huxley suffered from "nervous hysteria" (possibly postpartum depression) and in November 1887 she was taken to Paris for treatment with Jean-Martin Charcot, however, she contracted pneumonia and died in December 1887.[6] She had erratic behavior and possibly mental illness, which appeared to increase in symptoms before she died.[7]
After Marion died, John Collier married her younger sister Emma Huxley in 1889 in Norway.[8][9]
Collier's work can be found in museum collections, including at the National Portrait Gallery in London,[10] and the Science Museum in London.[11]