 In 1807, he entered the schools of the Royal Academy (at the same time as William Etty), and exhibited at the Academy for the first time in the same year.In 1809 he was awarded a medal in the life school, and exhibited three pictures - "Boy at Breakfast", "Boys with a Bird's-nest" and a "Portrait of Master Lee as he spoke the Prologue at the Haymarket Theatre".In 1811, Collins sold a picture entitled "The Young Fifer", to the Marquis of Stafford for 80 guineas, and the next year produced the work which made him famous, "The Sale of the Pet Lamb", which was sold for 140 forty guineas and engraved by S. W. Reynolds.