Collin was born in Antwerp and was educated there, training in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, where among his teachers was Josuë Dupon. He was a member of the Antwerp Group. He was a close friend of the Italian animalier Rembrandt Bugatti, who was based in Antwerp for several years before World War I. Like Bugatti, Collin frequented Antwerp Zoo, which was for him an inexhaustible source of inspiration.[1]
Work
Collin's oeuvre, except for his youngest years, consisted exclusively of prolific sculpted animals, both wild and domestic. His statuettes were often cast in bronze by the lost wax process.[1]
His most visible works are the 12 elephants created for a bridge in Antwerp in 1930 and his Éléphant monté par des Noirs ("Elephant mounted by blacks"), a monumental sculpture in concrete, created on the occasion of the Brussels International Exposition (1935) and exhibited in front of the pavilion of the Belgian Congo designed by René Schoentjes. The figures of the black Africans represent members of the Mangbetu people. After the end of the exhibition the sculpture was set up opposite the Royal Museum for Central Africa at Tervuren.[2]
