John Opie was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 historical and portrait painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

. He painted many great men and women of his day, most notably in the artistic and literary professions.

Life and work

Opie was born at Trevellas

Trevellas

Trevellas is a village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, situated midway between St Agnes and Perranporth.The village had a post office and shop until the 1980s when it was closed and is now divided into two dwellings. The shop was owned by Mrs Menadue and was known as Menadue drapers and...

, St Agnes

St Agnes, Cornwall

St Agnes is a civil parish and a large village on the north coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately five miles north of Redruth and ten miles southwest of Newquay....

 near Truro

Truro

Truro is a city and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The city is the centre for administration, leisure and retail in Cornwall, with a population recorded in the 2001 census of 17,431. Truro urban statistical area, which includes parts of surrounding parishes, has a 2001 census...

 in Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, the son, and youngest child of four, of Edward Opie, a master carpenter, and Mary (née Tonkin). He showed a precocious talent for drawing and mathematics; by the age of twelve he had mastered Euclid

Euclid

Euclid , fl. 300 BC, also known as Euclid of Alexandria, was a Greek mathematician, often referred to as the "Father of Geometry". He was active in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I...

 and opened an evening school for poor children where he taught reading, writing and arithmetic. His father, however, did not encourage John's abilities, and instead apprenticed him to his own trade of carpentry.

Opie's first recorded sketch was made at the age of ten and his work eventually came to the attention of local physician and satirist, Dr John Wolcot

John Wolcot

John Wolcot , satirist, born in Dodbrooke, near Kingsbridge in Devon, was educated by an uncle, and studied medicine. In 1767 he went as physician to Sir William Trelawny, Governor of Jamaica, and whom he induced to present him to a Church in the island then vacant, and was ordained in 1769...

 (Peter Pindar), who visited the teenage artist at his place of work - a sawmill

Sawmill

A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....

 - in 1775. Recognising a great talent, Wolcot became Opie's mentor, buying him out of his apprenticeship and insisting that he come to live at his home in Truro

Truro

Truro is a city and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The city is the centre for administration, leisure and retail in Cornwall, with a population recorded in the 2001 census of 17,431. Truro urban statistical area, which includes parts of surrounding parishes, has a 2001 census...

. Wolcot provided invaluable encouragement, advice, tuition and practical help in the advancement of Opie's early career, including obtaining many commissions for work.

In 1780, Opie travelled with Wolcot to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, where they shared a residence together, having entered into a formal profit-sharing agreement; Wolcot introduced the "Cornish wonder" to other artists, including the great Sir Joshua Reynolds

Joshua Reynolds

Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...

, who went on to compare him to Caravaggio

Caravaggio

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on the Baroque...

 and Velazquez

Diego Velázquez

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...

, and to prospective patrons. This business arrangement with Wolcot lasted for a year, after which Opie informed the doctor that he now wished to go it alone, leading to the estrangement of the two former partners.

Opie was introduced, prior to March 1782, at the court of King George III

George III of the United Kingdom

George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...

, who purchased one of his pictures and commissioned him to produce a portrait of Mary Delaney. He also received commissions to paint the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester

Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh

Prince William, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh was a member of the British Royal Family, a grandson of George II and a younger brother of George III.-Early life:...

, Lady Salisbury, Lady Charlotte Talbot

John Chetwynd-Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot

John Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot of Hensol , known as John Talbot until 1782 and as The Lord Talbot between 1782 and 1784, was a British peer and politician.-Background:...

, Lady Harcourt

William Harcourt, 3rd Earl Harcourt

Field Marshal William Harcourt, 3rd Earl Harcourt, of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, GCB was a British nobleman and soldier. He was the younger son of Simon Harcourt, 1st Earl Harcourt.-Seven Years War:...

 and other ladies of the court. Opie's residence at "Orange Court", Castle Street, Leicester Fields, was said to be "crowded with rank and fashion every day" and he was the talk of the town.

In 1782 he first exhibited at the Royal Academy

Royal Academy

The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

 and in December of that year was married to Mary Bunn - though the match proved to be an unhappy one and they were eventually divorced in 1796 after her elopement. Following a sharp decline in his popularity, Opie began to work on improving his technique, meriting the praise of his rival James Northcote

James Northcote

James Northcote RA , was an English painter.-Biography:He was born at Plymouth, and was apprenticed to his father, a poor watchmaker. In his spare time, he drew and painted. In 1769 he left his father and set up as a portrait painter. Four years later he went to London and was admitted as a pupil...

: "Other artists paint to live; Opie lives to paint." At the same time he sought to supplement his early education by the study of Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

, French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 and English literature

English literature

English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....

, and to polish his provincial manners by mixing in cultivated and learned circles.

In 1786 he exhibited his first important historical subject, the Assassination of James I, and in the following year the Murder of Rizzio, a work whose merit was recognized by his immediate election as associate of the Royal Academy

Royal Academy

The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

, of which he became a full member in 1788. He was employed on five subjects for John Boydell

John Boydell

John Boydell was an 18th-century British publisher noted for his reproductions of engravings. He helped alter the trade imbalance between Britain and France in engravings and initiated a British tradition in the art form...

's Shakespeare Gallery

Boydell Shakespeare Gallery

The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in London, England, was the first stage of a three-part project initiated in November 1786 by engraver and publisher John Boydell in an effort to foster a school of British history painting...

; and until his death, his practice alternated between portraiture and historical work. He married Amelia Alderson in May 1798 (see Amelia Opie

Amelia Opie

Amelia Opie, née Alderson , was an English author who published numerous novels in the Romantic Period of the early 19th century, through 1828.-Life and work:...

) and they lived at 8 Berners Street, where Opie had moved in 1791.

Opie painted many notable men and women of the day including Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book...

, Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...

, Francesco Bartolozzi

Francesco Bartolozzi

Francesco Bartolozzi was an Italian engraver, whose most productive period was spent in London.He was born in Florence...

, John Bannister

John Bannister (actor)

John Bannister , English actor and theatre manager.-Biography:John Bannister was born at Deptford. He was the son of Charles Bannister, also an actor. He first studied to be a painter, but soon took to the stage. His first formal appearance was at the Haymarket Theatre in 1778 as Dick in The...

, Joseph Munden

Joseph Shepherd Munden

Joseph Shepherd Munden , English actor, was the son of a London poulterer, and ran away from home to join a strolling company....

, Charles James Fox

Charles James Fox

Charles James Fox PC , styled The Honourable from 1762, was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned thirty-eight years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and who was particularly noted for being the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger...

, William Betty

William Henry West Betty

William Henry West Betty was a British child actor.-Biography:Betty was born at Shrewsbury. His first appearance on the stage at was at Belfast before he was twelve years old, as Osman in Aaron Hill's Zara, an English version of Voltaire's Zaïre...

, Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....

, John Crome

John Crome

John Crome was an English landscape artist of the Romantic era, one of the principal artists of the "Norwich school". He is known as Old Crome to distinguish him from his son, John Berney Crome, who was also a well-known artist.-Life and work:Crome was born in Norwich in Norfolk, the son of a weaver...

, James Northcote, Henry Fuseli

Henry Fuseli

Henry Fuseli was a British painter, draughtsman, and writer on art, of Swiss origin.-Biography:...

, Thomas Girtin

Thomas Girtin

Thomas Girtin was an English painter and etcher. A friend and rival of J. M. W. Turner, Girtin played a key role in establishing watercolour as a reputable art form.-Biography:...

, Robert Southey

Robert Southey

Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843...

, Samuel Parr

Samuel Parr

Samuel Parr , was an English schoolmaster, writer, minister and Doctor of Law. He was known in his time for political writing, and as "the Whig Johnson", though his reputation has lasted less well that Samuel Johnson's, and the resemblances were at a superficial level, Parr being no prose stylist,...

, Elizabeth Inchbald

Elizabeth Inchbald

Elizabeth Inchbald was an English novelist, actress, and dramatist.- Life :Born on 15 October 1753 at Standingfield, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, Elizabeth was the eighth of the nine children of John Simpson , a farmer, and his wife Mary, née Rushbrook. The family, like several others in the...

 and Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...

; 508 portraits in all, most in oil, and 252 other pictures.

In 1805, Opie was elected a Professor at the Royal Academy and from May 1807 gave a series of 4 lectures which were later published as a book after his death, with a memoir by his widow Amelia Opie

Amelia Opie

Amelia Opie, née Alderson , was an English author who published numerous novels in the Romantic Period of the early 19th century, through 1828.-Life and work:...

, in 1809. His students there included Henry Thomson

Henry Thomson (painter)

Henry Thomson RA was an English artist and Royal Academician who became Keeper of the Royal Academy.As a painter, he specialized in historical, mythological and literary subjects. He was also a translator.-Life:...

. Opie was also known as a writer on art by his Life of Reynolds in Wolcot's edition of Matthew Pilkington's "A Dictionary of Painters" and his Letter on the Cultivation of the Fine Arts in England, in which he advocated the formation of a national gallery,

Opie died in April 1807, aged 46, at his home in Berners Street, and was buried at St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...

, in the crypt next to Joshua Reynolds

Joshua Reynolds

Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...

, as he had wished. He had no children.

Note: An exhaustive list of Opie's exhibited works, private commissions etc. can be found in Ada Earland's book "John Opie and his circle" (1911, p. 251 ff.).

Further reading

• Edwards, B. B. & Bulfinch, S. G. Biography of self-taught men: with an introductory essay (Boston: J.E. Tilton and company, 1859) pp. 191-201.
• Rogers, John Jope. Opie and his works (London: P. and D. Colnaghi and co. etc., 1878).
• Tregellas, Walter Hawken. Cornish worthies: sketches of some eminent Cornish men and families, volume 2 (London: E. Stock, 1884) pp. 243-278.
• Earland, Ada. John Opie and his circle (London : Hutchinson & co., 1911).

External links

• The Cornish wonder: John Opie R.A. (Official website of the book of the same name by Viv Hendra)
• John Opie online (Artcyclopedia)
• John Opie on Artnet
• Portraits of: Maria Godsal; Young woman in a white dress; A young boy; A Boy with a Staff; A beggar boy (Philip Mould Fine Paintings - accessed 23 Feb 2011)