Background
Hawkins was born on August 28, 1893 in Sydenham, an area of London, England.
Hawkins was born on August 28, 1893 in Sydenham, an area of London, England.
Harold attended Dulwich College from 1906 to 1910, and then Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts.
After World War I, Harold studied at the Westminster Technical Institute and School of Art from 1919 to 1922, and took classes in etching from Sir Frank Short. His first solo exhibit was held in 1923, and his work was displayed in the Royal Academy of Arts. In 1927, to avoid public and media perceptions of being identified as a "wounded artist" rather than an artist in his own right, Weaver began signing his paintings with the art-name "Raokin,’ (the Italian phonetic pronunciation of "Mr Hawkins,") although he later became more popularly known as Weaver Hawkins.
From 1941 and 1972 Hawkins had several exhibitions in Australia, especially with the Contemporary Art Society of Australia and the Sydney Printmakers.
He was given several solo exhibitions at the Macquarie Galleries and the and Eva Breuer gallery. In 1976, a retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Weaver was a member of various art societies. He was a founding member and a president of the Contemporary Art Society, and in the early 1960s, a founding member of the Sydney Printmakers group, the first society of printmakers established after the end of the etching boom in the late 1930s when printmaking experienced a lull in Sydney for more than two decades.