77 Facts About Livingston Hopkins

Livingston Yourtee Hopkins was a prolific cartoonist and caricaturist with successive careers in both the United States and Australia.

Livingston Hopkins's work was published in a wide variety of periodicals and specialty publications.

In September 1882 Livingston Hopkins was visited in New York by William Traill, part-owner of The Bulletin, a recently established illustrated journal based in Sydney, Australia.

Livingston Hopkins remained in Australia and worked full-time for The Bulletin for over thirty years, eventually becoming a part-owner of the journal and having occasional cartoons published up until 1921.

Livingston Hopkins became a major figure in Australian cartooning in the period leading up to the Federation of Australia.

Livingston Hopkins was born on 7 July 1846 in the United States of America, on a farm at Bellefontaine in Logan County, Ohio, the son of Daniel Hopkins and his wife Sarah.

Livingston Hopkins's family were Methodists, and his upbringing was somewhat hard and puritanical.

Livingston Hopkins's father died in 1849 when Livingston was aged three years, leaving his mother a widow with nine surviving children.

In July 1854 the widowed Sarah Livingston Hopkins married Silas McClish at Shelby in Ohio.

Young Livingston Hopkins had an early interest in drawing and was educated at schools at Bellafontaine, Kalida and Toledo until the age of fourteen.

When Livingston Hopkins began to draw caricatures of the teacher, Gudgeon received the drawings with tolerant amusement and encouraged his pupil to preserve his artwork in a scrapbook.

Livingston Hopkins' unit was initially stationed at Washington, DC The artist later recalled an occasion when President Lincoln and his officers rode through the lines of the regimental encampment.

The regiment's period of service ended in September 1864, after which Livingston Hopkins re-entered civilian life.

In Toledo Livingston Hopkins' drawing ability came to the attention of Dr Miller, co-proprietor of the Toledo Blade newspaper.

Livingston Hopkins received a job offer to provide illustrations for some of Locke's 'Nasby' publications.

Livingston Hopkins accepted the position and moved to Champaign where he was employed as the "'local' editor and general utility man".

Livingston Hopkins's first drawing in print was published in the Champaign Union, with Hopkins producing the woodcut block used to reproduce the illustration.

In early October 1870 Hopkins received a letter from Josiah G Holland, a partner at Scribner and Co.

When Livingston Hopkins arrived at the offices of Scribner and Co.

Livingston Hopkins was then given over to Alexander Drake, in charge of the Art department.

Livingston Hopkins was then placed in a clerical position in the business department, on a salary of twelve dollars a week, and arrangements were made for him to study under a drawing teacher for two nights a week, at his own expense.

Livingston Hopkins applied himself to mastering the process of engraving the wood-blocks used to print his artwork, thus being paid for both the illustration and its means of reproduction.

Livingston Hopkins set up his own studio at 116 Nassau Street, Manhattan, "in a part of the city that was within easy walking distance of a ready market for comic goods".

Livingston Hopkins's studio had a sign on the door: "Livingston Hopkins, Designer on Wood".

Livingston Hopkins took full advantage of the expanding magazine market and established personal contacts in the New York publishing companies.

Livingston Hopkins's work was published in Wild Oats, a humour magazine established in 1870, as well as specialty publications from Wild Oats such as Life of Horace Greeley.

An early commission that Livingston Hopkins received was to provide sixteen chapter illustrations for Cervantes' The Adventures of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha, published in 1870 by Hurst and Co.

Livingston Hopkins was commissioned through the publisher George Carleton to illustrate Josh Billings' Farmer's Allminax, first published in 1870.

The artist and the humourist Henry Shaw became friends and Livingston Hopkins continued to illustrate the popular annual Allminax until its final edition in 1879.

Livingston Hopkins was invited to join the staff of the new journal, but declined the offer as, in his own words, he was "becoming more and more confirmed in the happy-go-lucky habits of a free lance".

Livingston Hopkins eventually entered into an agreement with the newspaper management to contribute to The Daily Graphic "on a space-rate basis".

Livingston Hopkins married Harriet Augusta Commager on 9 June 1875 in Toledo.

Carleton agreed to the idea and a deal was struck, with Livingston Hopkins to receive fifteen percent of the gross sales.

Sales of the book was so poor that Livingston Hopkins received no author's royalty from the publisher.

The book was released at a reduced price and "had a steady sale", such that Livingston Hopkins was occasionally sent a royalty check "for several years" after coming to Australia.

Livingston Hopkins had been a regular contributor to the St Nicholas children's magazine since its inception in 1873.

Livingston Hopkins' artwork appeared in Hawk-eyes, "a volume of collected humorous stories and essays" by Robert Burdette, published in 1879 by George Carleton.

Livingston Hopkins received commissions to provide illustrations for editions of classic literature.

Livingston Hopkins arrived in America on a mission to secure the services for the magazine of "a humorous artist of the first rank".

Livingston Hopkins promised to consider the matter and give his decision within a few days.

At their next meeting Livingston Hopkins explained that he would need to consult his wife, who was visiting relatives in Toledo.

Livingston Hopkins wrote to Harriet explaining the situation and requested that she reply by wire.

When Livingston Hopkins received the telegram from his wife, it read: "Accept Australia".

In late December 1882 Livingston Hopkins travelled with his family by train from New York to San Francisco.

The family found temporary accommodation near the top of William Street in Sydney and Livingston Hopkins was provided with a studio on Bond Street, near Circular Quay.

Livingston Hopkins was described as "a gentleman who, as a genuine humourist with the pencil, is not excelled, and perhaps not equalled by any living artist".

Illustrations by Livingston Hopkins featured prominently in the first issue of the "New Series" Bulletin on 19 May 1883, including two full-page cartoons.

However, after many attempts at The Bulletin to master the process, with unsatisfactory results, Livingston Hopkins suggested to Traill that expert photo-engraving technicians be sought.

An early attempt by Livingston Hopkins of caricaturing a local politician was a June 1883 cartoon titled 'Wanted, a Backbone' featuring the premier of New South Wales, Alexander Stuart, lacking a backbone and kept upright by a group of supporters.

Livingston Hopkins remained at the Bond Street studio until about August 1885, after which he relocated to a room on the first floor of the Bulletin offices in Pitt Street.

Livingston Hopkins illustrated the 'Little Boy at Manly' as a young lad in early-Victorian costume in the style of English storybook schoolboys, wearing high-waisted pantaloons, a shirt with a frilled collar and a flat peaked cap.

One of Livingston Hopkins' most celebrated and successful illustrations for The Bulletin was 'The Roll-Call.

Livingston Hopkins' drawing was inspired by two contemporary events, the return of the New South Wales Contingent who had served with British forces as part of the Suakin Expedition in the Sudan and the purchase by the National Art Gallery of New South Wales of a copy of The Roll Call, Elizabeth Thompson's revered Crimean War painting.

Livingston Hopkins' drawing satirises the "futility of the expedition", incorporating numerous details intended to "deflate the heroism of the cause".

The combined pictorial talents of Livingston Hopkins and May was an important factor in the growing popularity, influence and prosperity of The Bulletin during the late 1880s.

Livingston Hopkins was a musician "of no mean order", known as an amateur cellist, and built musical instruments as a hobby.

Livingston Hopkins taught etching at both his Jamieson Street studio and his home at Mosman.

Livingston Hopkins has been described as "an imaginative illustrator who practised fine art on the side".

Livingston Hopkins started an artists' camp with Julian Ashton on rented land in the suburb of Balmoral at Edwards Beach.

Livingston Hopkins had a fertile graphic imagination and a talent for creating durable symbols.

Livingston Hopkins's drawing complemented a leading article on the following page supporting an increase in salaries for Australian politicians.

Livingston Hopkins enjoyed an enduring popularity with readers of The Bulletin.

Livingston Hopkins had a keen journalistic sense, habitually keeping notebooks "on the picturesque possibilities of the day's news".

The limited edition etchings, printed by Livingston Hopkins himself, sold out.

Livingston Hopkins had a prolific output; during his thirty years with The Bulletin he produced an estimated nineteen thousand drawings.

In November 1899 Livingston Hopkins delivered a lecture titled 'The Dismal Art of Caricature' at the Richmond School of Arts.

Lindsay thought of Livingston Hopkins as dour and inflexible whose nearest approach to humour was "a kind of whimsical sadism".

Livingston Hopkins had a strong sense of propriety, which some ascribed to his puritan roots.

Livingston Hopkins acquired shares in The Bulletin and eventually became a director.

In 1903, after suffering a severe illness, Livingston Hopkins undertook a world tour, travelling to Japan, the United States and Europe.

Livingston Hopkins participated in annual bowling contests between "representatives of Parliament and the Press", held on the parliamentary green.

In December 1904 the Bulletin published a volume of selected drawings by Livingston Hopkins titled On the Hop.

Livingston Hopkins returned to Sydney in August 1914 aboard the Manuka from New Zealand.

Livingston Hopkins arrived "with his drawing hand in a sling" after having broken a finger on board the USS Tahiti during the voyage across the Pacific to New Zealand.

Livingston Hopkins retained his American citizenship all his life, though his daughter Dorothy recorded that her father learned to love Australia and never regretted leaving his native land.

Livingston 'Hop' Hopkins died on 21 August 1927 at Mosman, Sydney, aged 81.

Livingston Hopkins's funeral was held the following day, leaving Wood Coffill's mortuary chapel in George Street and proceeding to the crematorium at Rookwood where a service was held and the body cremated.