[1] In 1858, she married a Hudson's Bay Company official, Edward Hopkins, whose work took him to North America.

At 20, she married Edward Martin Hopkins, the Hudson's Bay Company Governor-General's secretary, at St. Saviour's Church, Paddington, London.

The Hopkins, along with Edward's three previous sons, moved to Lachine, Lower Canada shortly after their marriage in 1858.

[4] The Hopkins family moved to Lachine, as Edward worked there as secretary to Sir George Simpson, the Hudson's Bay Company's Governor General.

[8] When she arrived at Lachine, the eastern station of the Montreal fur trade, with her husband and his sons, Hopkins began sketching and painting the environment that surrounded her new home without any delay.

[9] A local newspaper wrote about the festivities shortly after they took place, stating that there were only three women in attendance, and that two of them were Hopkins and her sister, Miss Beechey.

[9] Hopkins also took the opportunity to produce some sketches during the festivities, which she later developed into large watercolours at the request of the Prince of Wales (later known as King Edward VII of the United Kingdom) for hanging at Windsor Castle.

[9] Throughout her time in Canada, Hopkins accompanied her husband on many of his voyages, especially after Edward was promoted to Superintendent of the Hudson's Bay Company's Montreal department.

[10] In Montreal, Hopkins joined Edward on several of his tours of inspection of his fur-trade posts, which stretched from the Mingan District to Fort Williams, Ontario.

[14] Hopkins and her husband also made short visits to England, where she exhibited her work, and vacationed in France.

[9] In 1869, Hopkins and her husband took a farewell tour of Lake Superior, as retirement from the Hudson's Bay Company was approaching.

[6] Hopkins, already have been exposed to fine arts in her youth by her family, saw the chance to travel to Canada and paint, was seen by her as both a personal venture, as well as a professional opportunity.

The travels that would influence her well-known oil paintings later on were mostly inspired from her tours of the fur trading routes with her husband—during 1864, 1866, and 1869, they visited the Upper Great Lakes and the Mattawa (Ont.)

[19] This marked an important turning point in her career[12] because her popularity in Britain gradually became larger, as the romantic atmosphere her paintings possessed was highly appealing to the British audience, and they sold better on the London art market compared to that of the North American art market.

[6] It wasn't until over a hundred years later in 1990 would her work be organised into an extensive exhibition of Frances Anne Hopkins by guest curator Janet Clark at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery.

[20] Hopkins completed several oil paintings that reflected her life in Canada, using her memories of the Canadian landscape and sketches she had produced while living there as references.

[20] This involvement consisted of producing paintings on demand for her clients, sending her artwork to various art dealers and commercial galleries, and selling her own work, which she set the prices for herself.

Canoes in a Fog - Lake Superior was a stepping stone for Hopkins; this was the first of her many paintings that will make it to the Royal Academy of London.

A total of five other paintings made it to the list which is: Left to Die, Canadian Voyageurs on Lake Superior starting at Sunrise, Wilfred Hopkins (Portrait of Son) and lastly Running a rapid on the Mattawa River, Canada, these were accomplished from the year 1869 to 1878.

[4] Thomas Schultze has written an extensively annotated book of Hopkins's work, which was published by Penumbra Press in spring 2008.

[27] At the Cowley Abbott Auction, Important Canadian Art (Sale 2), December 1, 2022, lot #138, Voyageurs Encampment (Camp Scene on the Ottawa) (1867), oil on canvas, 15 x 26.25 ins ( 38.1 x 66.7 cms ), estimated at $70,000.00 - $90,000.00, realized a price of $552,000.00.