James Roy Hopkins Early 20th Century Oil Painting of Tree

Item Details

James Roy Hopkins (Ohio/Kentucky/France; 1877 – 1969)
Untitled (landscape with tree), early 20th century
Oil on canvas
Unsigned
Antique label attached to verso displays information about piece and attribution to artist

An early 20th century oil painting on canvas by well-listed American painter James Roy Hopkins (Ohio/Kentucky/France; 1877 – 1969). This landscape painting revisits a scene that Hopkins painted several times, and depicts a magnificent, mature tree dominating the pictorial space, surrounded by trees in the distance and rich, red dirt dotted with grass. There is no artist signature. This work is mounted in its original custom moulded wood frame with a red and gold tone finish. A mostly in-tact exhibition label from the 1931 Municipal Art Committee Second National Exhibition of American Art is present to the verso.

Hopkins was born in 1877 and raised in rural Ohio. He studied briefly at Ohio State University and the Columbus School of Art before enrolling in the Art Academy of Cincinnati where he studied under Frank Duveneck. He later studied in Paris at the Académie Colarossi and socialized with such luminaries as Pierre August Renoir, Claude Monet, and Edgar Degas. He returned to Ohio to marry his Art Academy classmate Edna Boies, a well-known printmaker. Together they toured Europe, returning again to Ohio at the outbreak of WWI, and Hopkins began teaching at the Cincinnati Academy of Art. After the death of Duveneck he became the head of the Institution, until 1923 when he became an artist in residence at Ohio State University, and soon heading the Art Department there. He is best known for his series, The Cumberland Suite, painted from 1915 – 1919 , that depicts the inhabitants of Appalachian Kentucky. Hopkins’ work was widely exhibited during his lifetime, and now resides in the collections of numerous prestigious institutions, including The Johnson Collection; Art Institute of Chicago; Mason County Museum; Springfield Museum of Art; Greenville County Museum of Art; High Museum of Art; and The Columbus Museum of Art, among many others.

Condition

- accretion and light discoloration across painting surface. Cracking throughout frame.

Dimensions

- measures frame. Visible image area measures 26" W x 32" H.

Item #

18CIN698-031