Gustaf Marcus Collin was an visual artist from born in 1882 in Helsinki. He was one of the central members of November Group, a group of avant-garde Finnish expressionists. Collin was from an educated Swedish-speaking family. His father was a civil servant. Becoming an artist was not obvious for Collin. He worked as a journalist, and tried to study architecture, but the mathematics classes were too challenging for him.

     He changed his studies to art, but after studying for a year in the beginner's class at the Finnish Art Association's drawing school, he was not accepted into the painting class. He left his studies at the drawing school and became a student of Eero Järnefelt in the drawing room at the University of Helsinki. After a year of study there, he traveled to Paris in 1905.

     In 1908 Collin visited Paris, Belgium, Holland and Germany. During these trips he mainly studied older art: Rembrandt, Jordaens, Holbein and Dürer, and on his fourth visit to Paris in 1912 he enrolled in Académie Ranson where he was taught by Paul Sérusier. Sérusier drew his attention to composition, and for a while even the use of color in Collin's work shows influence of Sérusier. In 1913, he participated in the Septem Group's second exhibition in Finland, which represented a French perception of color.

     In 1916 Collin became a member of the November Group of artists led by Tyko Sallinen. In middle of 1910s  the group started to use more ascetic palettes, and the colour scale of Collin was the most minimal of them all.

After 1921, Collin gradually abandoned his gray and brown palette by adding more bright colours. When he became older, his style became more realistic.

     Collin is known for his paintings of people. Much of his art portrays factory workers and farmhands as faceless representatives of their social class. The art historian Onni Okkonen gave this style the term, "dwarf style." He also created illustrations for books such as the Aleksis Kivi novel Seitsemän veljestä and the Miguel de Cervantes novel Don Quixote. In 1948 he created pastel illustrations for a Swedish translation of Aleksis Kivis' Seven Brothers.

     In 1931 Collin was commissioner for the Finnish exhibition in Amsterdam. In 1953 he was given an honorary title of professor by the University of Helsinki. He also received the Swedish Prince Eugen Medal in 1957.

     The artist is represented in these public institutions:

• The Finnish National Gallery

• Helsinki Art Museum collection Bäcksbacka

• Statens Museum for Kunst (National Gallery)

• National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo

• The Espoo Museum of Modern Art

• Amos Anderson Art Museum

• The Turku Art Museum

• Tavastehus Art Museum

• Moderna Museet Stockholm

• Prins Eugen's Waldemarsudde

• The Didrichsen Art Museum (Finnish Visual Arts)

• Riihimäki Art Museum

• ​Orimattila Art Museum