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)
frame: 35 × 25 in. (88.9 × 63.5 cm)
Credit LineBequest of Joseph Bancroft, 1942
Object number1942-13
On View
On viewClassificationsPAINTING
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.
