Arthur Hopkins Art

Arthur Hopkins was born only eight years after Hardy and lived to the age of 82. Hopkins was the son of a prosperous marine insurance agent and was born in Stratford, London. He was educated at Lancing College in Sussex and, after graduation, worked in a London office before entering the Royal Academy of Arts in 1872. He exhibited in various London galleries, chiefly that of the Royal Watercolour Society and that of the Royal Academy of Arts, but over twenty-five years also contributed illustrations to The Graphic, Punch, and The Illustrated London News. He was made an Associate of the Royal Watercolor Society in 1877, and a member in 1896. His brothers were also graphic artists: Everard (1860-1928) painted in watercolors as well; Edward was a black-and-white illustrator, and Gerard Manley Hopkins was a fine draftsman (as well as a renowned poet). Arthur Hopkins' genre scenes of country life are in much the style of another Paul Hardy illustrator, Helen Patterson Allingham. He was a member of the rising generation of illustrators influenced by George du Maurier and William Small. As Forrest Reid remarks, "a good draughtsman, with a strong dramatic sense, to which is added a sense of character."