Livingston Hopkins, cartoonist, was born in Ohio and fought in the American Civil War before beginning his cartooning career in New York. He was invited by WH Traill to join the staff of the Bulletin in 1882, and arrived in Sydney the following year. Soon after, he established Sydney’s first artists’ camp on twenty-four rented hectares of land at Balmoral; attracting artists such as Julian Ashton, Henry Fullwood, Charles Conder and Sidney Long, it persisted until about 1900. Working under the nom de plume of ‘Hop’, he was the Bulletin’s most popular caricaturist during its heyday, producing thousands of drawings over a period of twenty years on topical issues such as the Sudan war and Federation. By the time he effectively retired in 1913, Hopkins had made more than 19 000 drawings. Survived by five children, he died at Mosman, where he had pursued his hobbies of making violins and whittling.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
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