Stories

By Mark Skeffington

One notable admirer of Canadian artist William John Hopkinson’s paintings was the American actor Vincent Price, best known for starring in dozens of gothic horror movies.

Vincent Price (1911-1993) penned a letter to W.J. Hopkinson on the occasion of the Newmarket, Ontario artist’s 80^th birthday in 1967.

The letter reads:

“Dear William Hopkinson. As a long time admirer of your beautiful paintings, may I join the throng in wishing you a very Happy Birthday! Sincerely, Vincent Price.”

The handwritten letter sits inside a family scrapbook belonging to W.J. Hopkinson’s grandson, Dave Forsythe.

Vincent Price also owned and promoted W.J. Hopkinson’s art.

Vincent Price became an actor in 1938, but really began to make a name for himself in the 1950s when he began starring in gothic horror films, including those based on the books of Edgar Allan Poe.

The actor’s distinctive voice and tall, thin stature (he was 6-foot-4) made him stand out in a series of roles, many as a villain, vampire or as a character prone to black humour.

The actor was a sort of Renaissance man. He hosted radio shows, narrated books on spoken-word records, delivered poetry readings, starred in theatre productions, and devoted himself to gourmet cuisine, which led to his own TV cooking show and the writing of several cookbooks.

Vincent Price was also an art collector, with eclectic tastes, and had studied art history at university.

In 1948, Vincent Price, fellow actor and art collector Edgar G. Robinson, and other art lovers opened a short-lived art gallery in Hollywood.

A few years later, in 1951, Vincent Price founded the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles Community College. Over the years, the actor donated several thousand works of various kinds to the college’s collection, which continues to grow.

It made sense, therefore, that the Sears Roebuck and Company department store chain turned to Vincent Price in the 1960s for its short foray into the art business.

Sears customers in the United States and Simpson’s Sears customers Canada could purchase original works of art, lithographs, silkscreens and woodblocks, with a modest down payment and monthly payments. It was an attempt to spread art to the masses, so to speak, making art accessible and affordable.

In Canada, Simpson’s hosted the Vincent Price Collection of Fine Art at its Bay Street, Toronto, flagship store. Artworks were largely historical Canadian (including A.J. Casson, A.Y. Jackson, Cornelius Krieghoff) with contemporary art also included (Harold Town, Jean Paul Riopelle).

Works by W.J. Hopkinson were also part of the collection. A photo of one W.J. Hopkinson work called Burnt Country was shown in a newspaper advertisement for the collection.

In 1965, the actor came to the Toronto Home Show, held at the CNE grounds, to help promote the venture, attracting positive write-ups in the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail newspapers.

By 1971, the selling of art from the collection had stopped, but an estimated 50,000 pieces had been purchased by Sears customers over almost a decade.

W.J. Hopkinson paintings with a Vincent Price Collection of Fine Art label on the back sometimes show up on the art market, although the story behind that label is little known today.

Suggested viewing:

Video: 1962 Vincent Price Sales Training Video for Fine Art Collection, retrieved from YouTube.

Video: Vincent Price Art Museum, with walkthrough with Vincent Price, retrieved from YouTube

Suggested reading:

Article: Vintage Toronto Ads: The Vincent Price Collection of Fine Art, by Jamie Bradburn, Dec. 12, 2014, The Torontoist.

Article from the Sears Archives: Sears and Fine Art – Vincent Price Collection of Fine Art.

– @wjhopkinson.ca.
About the Writer: Mark Skeffington is an art collector & co-founder of FineArtCollector.ca, a Canadian fine art gallery; he lives in Niagara, Ontario, Canada.

By Mark Skeffington

The launch of the W.J. Hopkinson website has been covered by the media.

The Haliburton County Echo newspaper published a story about the new online art gallery on Sept. 6, called Long lost paintings of Haliburton landscapes find a home.
Haliburton was probably William John Hopkinson’s favourite place to paint and the area was the subject of dozens of his paintings, so it was natural that the Echo would have interest in the story.

To  read the Echo story, CLICK HERE.

The Barrie Examiner published a story called Late artist underappreciated on Sept. 27, on the new website, interviewing W.J. Hopkinson’s grandson, Dave Forsythe, who lives near Barrie.

To read the Examiner story, CLICK HERE.

Another story ran in The Highlander, another Haliburton newpaper, on Sept. 1, 2016.

……………

– @wjhopkinson.ca.
About the Writer: Mark Skeffington is an art collector & co-founder of FineArtCollector.ca, a Canadian fine art gallery; he lives in Niagara, Ontario, Canada.

By Mark Skeffington

This story about discovering W.J. Hopkinson comes from England.

About 10 years ago, Hilary Cooper was stopped at a traffic light in Carnforth, Lancashire, outside a charity shop, when a painting in the shop window caught her eye.

“I decided to go and buy it there and then, so I parked the car,” she said, describing that day.

“Then I remembered I hadn’t got any cash with me. I thought the shop would put it away for me until I returned to pay for it. On the way to the shop I found a £5 note on the pavement. When I got to the shop the price of the picture was …. £5.00! I felt it was meant to be.

“I particularly like the use of pink in the sky. I think it’s a lovely painting.”

On the back of the 9.5 X 11.5 inch oil painting is the title: Evening – Grass Lake.

Hilary, who lives in the Lake District of northern England, emailed wjhopkinson.ca looking for more information about the scene.

Grass Lake is in the Haliburton area of Ontario, very close to Eagle Lake, one of Hopkinson’s favourite spots to paint en plein air.

……………

Do you have a story about your W.J. Hopkinson painting? Please email to wjhopkinson@bell.net

– @wjhopkinson.ca.
About the Writer: Mark Skeffington is an art collector & co-founder of FineArtCollector.ca, a Canadian fine art gallery; he lives in Niagara, Ontario, Canada.

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By Mark Skeffington

My discovery of Canadian artist William John Hopkinson happened by chance.

A woman who offered to sell me a Tom Roberts silkscreen – a copy of Road to the Village printed by Sampson-Matthews Ltd. in the 1950s – asked if I wanted to see a painting she had picked up at an auction. She was hoping I would buy it, too.

The painting was an unsigned 16 X 20 inch oil on artist panel (see photo above). On the back of the panel was written in blue ink: “An original oil painting done by the late W.J. Hopkinson in the late 1950s. Haliburton District.” The inscription continued: “Feb. 6, 1984. Violet F. Forsythe (Daughter of W.J. Hopkinson).”

incredible sky

I had never heard of the artist W.J. Hopkinson, but I was taken by the sky in the painting, broad palette knife strokes of intertwining pinks, blues, purples and skin tones. I didn’t like the bottom portion of the painting as much: a chaotic forested landscape. But the sky was incredible. I bought the painting. I don’t remember what I paid for it, but I think it was less than $200. That was how I discovered W.J. Hopkinson some 43 years after his 1970 death.

On the back of the frame was taped a clear plastic bag containing a card. On the cover was a printed sketch of “Bill” Hopkinson by his friend and fellow artist Isabelle Van Zant (see picture at top of Biography). Inside was typed out a brief biography of W.J. Hopkinson, giving details of his life and listing some businesses that had purchased his paintings.

That card gave me a starting point to search out more information on W.J. Hopkinson, and eventually – three years later – led to the creation of this website.

– @wjhopkinson.ca.
About the Writer: Mark Skeffington is an art collector & co-founder of FineArtCollector.ca, a Canadian fine art gallery; he lives in Niagara, Ontario, Canada.