painter and printmaker (etchings, linocuts and monotypes and woodcuts), was born in Sydenham, London, on 28 August 1893 and raised in the United Kingdom. His etching and drypoint Refugees 1918 (edn 10; AGNSW), was done in England; it is inscribed in pencil '2nd etching. Done while in hospital 1918’. Carnival 1920, etching (AGNSW), and ( Fountain, Trafalgar Square ) 1920, etching and aquatint, (AGNSW) are also English works. He is said to have attended etching classes under Sir Frank Short at the Royal College of Art, London from 1921-22 eg. Roadmakers 1921, etching (AGNSW), and Coffee Stall 1921, etching (edn 40; copies AGNSW, Josef Lebovic). His linocut, The wood engraver 1923, was in Bridget McDonnell’s exhibition Australian Prints (Melbourne 29 October-22 November 1996: not illustrated). Later he did linocuts in a style comparable to those by another British migrant, Frank Medworth , eg. The Spring 1926 (AGNSW). Most were done after he moved to Malta in 1927, eg. The Two Minutes’ Silence c.1928, linocut (AGNSW), and Puberty Ritual (Drunken Maltese Boys) c.1928 (edn 10; AGNSW & Josef Lebovic), Australian Miscellany collectors’ list 55 (1996) cat. 71 (ill.). He wrote and illustrated with original b/w woodcuts, A Zoological Alphabet , self published, Malta [1929].
Hawkins was in Tahiti in 1933-34 then came to Australia in 1935, where he settled. Lebovic lists Fleshy Beach 1963, linocut (edn 10), while AGNSW has The Innocents 1968, a linocut (3/6) exhibited in the 1969 Print Prize Exhibition (painted version exhibited in the Blake Prize 1968). Other AGNSW prints in file. Good b/w Study for Two Minute Silence 1953, w/c and gouache on paper 40.5 × 101 cm, on sale Sotheby’s April 1997. A study for the painting now in the Australian War Memorial, this was exhibited at Macquarie Galleries in October 1989. His graphic Steeplechase , ink on paper drawing signed 'Raokin '68’, was offered in Christie’s Australian and European Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Ceramics, Part II , Melbourne 30 April 1997, lot 289 (on sale Kozminsky Galleries, March 1999).
Hawkins died at Willoughby, NSW on 13 August 1977. His wife, Irene Hawkins, was also a printmaker (see National Gallery of Australia website).
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1996
- Last updated:
- 2007
