Hopkins was born on 30 December 1847 in London (and died there on 10 September 1930; GRO).  Arthur was the younger brother of the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, and was educated at Lancing College, Sussex.  He entered the RA Schools in 1872, and began exhibiting at main London galleries from that time.  In 1879 he exhibited a Newlyn title at the RA, placing his presence in West Cornwall amongst the earliest of the artists.  As an illustrator he contributed to The Graphic, Punch and Illustrated London News, working on the serial version of Hardy's Return of the Native, among other things.

Ezra Pound, reviewing an RWS show with the psuedonym of B H Dias, observed of  a Hopkins work: 'Victorian era still dragging on; most unfortunate.'