From: Charles S. Hopkinson Virtual Gallery  

Extracted from an essay by Leah Lipton, Charles Hopkinson: Pictures from a New England Past, Framingham Massachusetts, Danforth Museum, 1988. 

  
Family legend gives credit to John Singer Sargent for suggesting the theme of Three Dancing Girls to Hopkinson, after seeing the girls dressed in old-fashioned costumes, dancing on the rocks at Manchester. Sargent visited the Manchester house in 1916 while he was in Boston working on the murals at the Public Library .A postcard from one of Mrs. Hopkinson's sisters to another, written on August 20, 1917, confirms a second Sargent visit, in the company of Isabella Stewart Gardner. Harriot Curtis writes, "John Singer [Sargent] admired it ex-tremely! [a reference to the dress worn by one of the girls] He and Mrs. Gardner, no less, came by tother (sic) day to see how the painting he insisted on Charles painting came on. He likes it but says there must be four, not three, children, and Happy must be definitely curtseying." Although Hopkinson did not add a fourth child, there is evidence in a study he made for the painting that he did change the position of the child in the foreground in response to Sargent's suggestion. 
(www.cshgallery.org/essay_lipton.htm) 
 
  
See more: Charles S. Hopkinson Virtual Gallery 

From: Arthur Saltzman
<ar th ur@paratec.com>  
Date:    Tue, 15 Jan 2002  

My wife's grandfather was Charles S. Hopkinson, an artist who was a contemporary of John Singer Sargent. 

Having recently retired from my teaching job, as one of my projects I have just started to develop a web site that will display the paintings of CSH.  . .  

Then, my wife's cousin reminded me that JSS is reputed to have said of Manchester: "What right has Charles to live in paradise?" A file with the "Three Dancing Girls" is attached so you can get a idea of the Manchester MA rocks. The girl in red was Mary Hopkinson, my wife's mother.  

So I searched the web for JSS and found your wonderful JSSGallery.org site.  I am inspired and in awe by what you have accomplished.  Your site is far bigger and better than anything I could imagine doing.  

I especially liked the organization and format of your site.  Would you give me permission to use your HTML as I develop the CSH Gallery?  

In any event, thank you for inspiring me.  

Best regards, 

Arthur 

Arthur Saltzman, Ph.D. 
Professor Emeritus 
California State University 
cshgallery.org 

From: Natasha 
Date: Thur, 17 Jan 2002  

Hi Arthur, 

Good to hear from you. Permission granted and thanks for asking. Just give me credit someplace on your website with a link to JSSGallery.org.  

I'd like to help you if you want it in any way. I mean that. I want to be a mentor for people trying to do what your trying to do; and I'd like to link to your site when you get it going. In fact that's sort of my hope with the the JSSGallery -- I want it to be a central trunk for any number of branches that lead off to other artists that he knew. It's not imperative, but it would be great if you could document when they might have crossed paths, or at least able to narrow it down to an approximate years at some point in time. 

I loved the painting and have featured it. 

Good luck and keep me posted 

Natasha 

From: Arthur Saltzman
<ar th ur@paratec.com> 
Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2002  
 

Hi Natasha,  

Well it took much longer than I expected and I still have many more revisions and additions to do, but the first draft of the Charles S. Hopkinson Gallery is up at: www.cshgallery.org  

From Natasha 
Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2002  

Dear Arthur, 

I love it. In fact I think it looks brilliant! . . . . .  but then maybe I'm not the most objective critic of the design. Welcome aboard and note that I have you listed in my Sargent Web Ring. 
 

Notes: