Hopkins also became known for a series of paintings executed between 1915 and 1919. These works, in which he depicted Appalachian farmers, traveling preachers, and children living in the Kentucky mountains south of Cincinnati, are departures from his decorative form of Impressionism. Some of the earliest examples of Regionalist painting in the 20th century, these works anticipated those of Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and John Steuart Curry, who also painted the impoverished rural folk of America's heartland. [http://www.kenygalleries.com/images/ah-hopkins-j/jhopkins-bio.html] ...in Mountain Courtship a girl and a boy (Vanover’s nephew was likely the model) walk hand-in-hand several paces behind a stern-looking older woman, their chaperone. The painting has rhythm and sweetness as it captures a mountain tradition. [http://www.dispatch.com/entertainmentlife/20171224/columbus-museum-of-art-features-former-ohio-state-art-department-chairman-hopkins-exhibit]