Hopalong Takes Command

Hopalong Takes Command
Hopalong Takes Command

Hopalong Takes Command

Date1905
Artist Frank Earle Schoonover American illustrator and painter, 1877–1972
Illustration Citation"The Fight at Buckskin," by Clarence Edward Mulford, in Outing Magazine, December 1905; reproduced in Bar-20, by Clarence Edward Mulford (New York: The Outing Publishing Company, 1907)
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions30 x 20 in. (76.2 x 50.8 cm)
frame: 35 × 25 in. (88.9 × 63.5 cm)
Credit LineBequest of Joseph Bancroft, 1942
Object number1942-13
On View
On view
Collections
  • Howard Pyle and American Illustration on View
ClassificationsPAINTING
Label TextClarence Mulford's character Hopalong Cassidy appeared in a series of cowboy adventures. He was shot in the leg in a gunfight and walked with a limp, earning him the derogatory nickname “Hopalong.” Schoonover modeled Cassidy on a cowboy with a shortened left leg who he met while traveling in the West to research these illustrations. The weather-beaten and cantankerous cowboy of mulford's stories was transformed into a suavely handsome figure in his later Hollywood film and television persona.