Although nineteenth-/early-twentieth century illustrator Harold Copping (25 August 1863 – 1 July 1932) was noted for his illustrations of Dickens’s child characters, he achieved celebrity status in biblical illustration. The Copping Bible (1910), illustrated entirely by himself, became a best-seller. Its success led to further Bible commissions, including A Journalist in the Holy Land (1911), The Golden Land (1911), The Bible Story Book (1923), and My Bible Book (1931).
Born in London’s Camden Town (home of the fictional Cratchits in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol) in 1863, Harold Copping was the second son of journalist Edward Copping (1829–1904) and Rose Heathilla (née Prout, 1832–1877), the daughter of John Skinner Prout, the well-known water-colourist. His brother, Arthur E. Copping, became a noted author, journalist, and travel-writer.
After studying at the Royal Academy School he visited Paris on a Landseer Scholarship. He became an accomplished illustrator and early books included Hammond's Hard Lines (1894), Miss Bobbie (1897), Millionaire (1898), A Queen Among Girls (1900), Pilgrim's Progress (1903), Westward Ho! (1903), Grace Abounding (1905), Three School Chums (1907), Children's Stories from Dickens (1911), Little Women (1912), Good Wives (1913), A Christmas Carol (1920), and Character Sketches from Boz (1924). He also illustrated a number of stories set in fictional British public schools, including Boys of the Priory School (1900) and The Boys of Wynport School (1916). Copping's illustrations were also published in such periodicals as The Leisure Hour, Little Folks, Pearson's Magazine, The Royal Magazine, The Temple Magazine, and The Windsor Magazine. A trip to Canada inspired the collection of watercolour sketches entitled Canadian Pictures (1912).
Returning from France, he established himself in Croydon and then Hornsey as a painter and illustrator. Copping had links with the missionary societies of his time including the London Missionary Society (LMS), who commissioned him as an illustrator of biblical scenes. To achieve authenticity and realism for his illustrations he travelled through Palestine and Egypt. Copping's family, his friends, and even his neighbours served as his models for his biblical illustrations, for which he kept an extensive collection of costumes and props in his home. In several of his Bible paintings he employed one of his wife's striped tea towels as the head-covering of various characters.
Christian missionaries all over the world. utilized Copping's watercolours in magic lantern slides, missionary society posters, tracts, and magazine illustrations. Undoubtedly his most celebrated biblical illustration was The Hope of the World (London Missionary Society, 1915), in which he has depicted Christ sitting amongst a group of children from different continents and racial backgrounds. It became the iconic image of the Sunday school movement from 1915 to 1960.
According to James Thorpe, in English Illustration: the Nineties (1935), “Harold Copping’s work, capable and honest as it was, does not inspire any great enthusiasm; there are so many artists doing illustrations equally satisfactory in literal translation and equally lacking in strong personal individuality.” In his twilight years Copping lived at 'The Studio' in Shoreham, Kent, and died there on 1 July 1932, aged 68. He was buried in the churchyard of St. Peter and St. Paul in Shoreham.
Links to Related Material
Bibliography
Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women. Illustrated by Harold Copping. London: The Religious Tract Society, 1913.
Bunyan, John. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, in a faithful account of the life and death of John Bunyan. Illustrated by Harold Copping. London: The Religious Tract Society, 1905.
Copping, Harold. Canadian Pictures. London: The Religious Tract Society, 1912.
Copping, Harold. Gospel in the Old Testament. London: The Religious Tract Society, 1908.
Houfe, Simon. "Copping, Harold." Dictionary of 19th Century British Book Illustrators and Caricaturists. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club, 1996. P. 99.
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Illustrated by Harold Copping. London: Raphael Tuck, 1917.
Dickens, Mary Angela, Percy Fitzgerald, Captain Edric Vredenburg, and Others. Illustrated by Harold Copping with eleven coloured lithographs. Children's Stories from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1893.
"Harold Copping." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Copping
Lamb, Charles. Tales from Shakespeare. London: Raphael Tuck, 1901.
Maclaren, Ian. "Frontispiece" by Harold Copping. Young Barbarians. London: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1901.
Matz, B. W., and Kate Perugini; illustrated by Harold Copping. Character Sketches from Dickens. London: Raphael Tuck, 1924. Copy in the Paterson Library, Lakehead University.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. London: Raphael Tuck, 1899.
Stevenson, John Sinclair. Knights of a Great Prince; The Story of What the Apostles of the Lord Did and Wrote. London: The Religious Tract Society, 1925.
Thorpe, James. “Copping, Harold.” English Illustration: The Nineties. London: Faber and Faber, 1935.
Created 23 September 2023