HOPKINS, Marion (1910)
Description:
Full-length standing as a child dressed in a coat and hat, her hands in an ermine muff.
Location:
Private Collection, Bedford, New York.
Provenance:
Bequeathed by the sitter to her best friend, the aunt of the present owners.
Exhibitions:
M. KNOEDLER & CO., New York, December 20, 1910 – January 3, 1911
Possibly the picture exhibited at the DUVEEN GALLERIES, 720, Fifth Avenue, New York, April 6 – 18 1925, No. 14 (as ‘Miss Hopkins’)
Bibliography:
New York Herald, December 28, 1910
New York American, January 2, 1911
The New York American, January 2, 1911 reported that ‘…the full-length of little Miss Marion Hopkins, who wears, without pain to her eyes, a pair of terribly brilliant patent leather pumps.’ A letter in the artist’s papers, undated, but evidently late 1910, written from 1, Madison Avenue, reads as follows:
‘Dear Mr. Muller-Ury,
I cannot adequately express my delight in your portrait and my appreciation of your exquisite work. It has made me very happy and will always be our chief treasure.
I am taking the liberty of enclosing check for $1500 and will send a check for the same amount in January. I use so much money in my business at the end of the year that I dislike to withdraw considerable sums until after we have closed our books for the year’s business. If at all inconvenient [to] you however I hope you will not hesitate to let me know.
With deep appreciation of your marvellous likeness of Marion and with my warm esteem, believe me,
Most sincerely yours, L. L. Hopkins.’
The letter is from Louis Lawton Hopkins, whose wife was Maude Hopkinson. Maude Hopkinson was the daughter of Daniel Hopkinson and Mrs Mary Beers Hopkinson, who had lived in New York before Daniel Hopkinson’s death in 1884. He had been editor and proprietor of the Jewelers’ Circular and Horological Review. In 1897, Mrs. Mary (Beers) Hopkinson, was living at 74 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, and with her lived her father, William L. Beers, and her son-in-law and daughter, Louis Hopkins and Maude Hopkinson Hopkins. Louis L. Hopkins was born in Jersey City on 14 July 1869, the son of Charles A. and Sarah Louise (Austin) Hopkins, and educated at Yale (1891) but did not finish his course but left at the end of his second year, and became manager of the Boston office of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. He married Maude Hopkinson 5 April 1895. The Hopkins’ apparently maintained a summer home in Manchester. The Hopkins moved to 344 Marlborough Street, Boston, during the 1903-1904 winter season, but had rejoined Mary Hopkinson at 74 Commonwealth Avenue by 1905, and continued to live there to 1907. They appear to have moved to New York in 1908 where Louis Hopkins is recorded as general manager of the Union Central Life Insurance Company and living at 1 Madison Avenue. On 26 February 1913 the New York Times recorded that Louis L. Hopkins was retiring as President of the Life Underwriters’ Association.
