John Opie (16 May 1761 – 9 April 1807) was a British painter whose subjects included many prominent men and women of his day, members of the British royal family and others who were notable in the artistic and literary careers.

Early career

thumb|left|Self Portrait, John Opie (n.d.)

Opie was born in Harmony Cottage, Trevellas, between St Agnes and Perranporth in Cornwall, UK. He was the youngest of the five children of Edward Opie, a master carpenter, and his wife Mary (née Tonkin). He showed a precocious talent for drawing and mathematics, and by the age of twelve, he had mastered Euclid and opened an evening school for poor children where he taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. His father, however, did not encourage his abilities, and apprenticed him to his own trade of carpentry.

Opie's artistic abilities eventually came to the attention of local physician and satirist, Dr John Wolcot (Peter Pindar), who visited him at the sawmill where he was working 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.

London

In 1781, having gained considerable experience as a portraitist travelling around Cornwall, Opie moved to London with Wolcot. There they lived together, having entered into a formal profit-sharing agreement. a portrait of a boy shown at the Society of Artists the previous year, had been described in the catalogue as "an instance of Genius, not having ever seen a picture." Wolcot introduced the "Cornish wonder" to leading artists, including Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was to compare him to Caravaggio and Velazquez, and to prospective patrons.

Through the influence of "a Mrs Boscawen", Wolcot managed to have Opie introduced at the court of King George III. The King purchased one of his pictures and commissioned him to produce a portrait of Mary Delany. He also received commissions to paint Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, both the nephew and son-in-law of the King. Opie also painted the portraits of Lady Salisbury, Lady Charlotte Talbot, Lady Harcourt 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 1786 he exhibited his first important historical subject, the Assassination of James I, and in the following year The Death of Rizzio, a work whose merit was recognized by his immediate election as associate of the Royal Academy, of which he became a full member in 1788. He painted five subjects for John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery; and until his death, his practice alternated between portraiture and historical work. In May 1798 he married Amelia Alderson John and Amelia lived at 8 Berners Street, London where Opie had moved in 1791. This proved a happy marriage, lasting for Opie's last nine years of life.

Reception and society

After an initial burst of popularity, Opie's style rapidly fell out of fashion. In response to this he began to work on improving his technique, while at the same time seeking to supplement his early education by the study of Latin, French and English literature, and to polish his provincial manners by mixing in cultivated and learned circles. Opie was part of the "Strawberry Hill Set", the Gothick villa owned by Horace Walpole who would play host to the Blue Stockings Society. Opie painted many of the society's members including Mary Delany, Henry Fuseli, Hannah More, Samuel Johnson, Mary Wollstonecraft and, later on in his career, his own wife Amelia who was associated with the society.

thumb|[[The Winter's Tale, Act II, scene III, (engraving after Opie for the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery)]]

Opie painted many notable men and women including Mary Wollstonecraft, Samuel Johnson, Francesco Bartolozzi, John Bannister, Joseph Munden, Charles James Fox, William Betty, Edmund Burke, John Crome, James Northcote, Henry Fuseli, Thomas Girtin, Robert Southey, Samuel Parr, Elizabeth Inchbald and Mary Shelley; 508 portraits in all, mostly in oil, and 252 other pictures. Opie painted the portrait of George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend who, in February 1792 became Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk - the county from which Opie's wife hailed.

In 1799, Opie painted (oils) a portrait of Charlotte, Princess Royal, daughter of George III.

Jane Beetham Read was the only female student that Opie ever taught. He painted her portrait between 1790 and 1800, and asked for her hand in marriage around 1796, but her father rejected the marriage.

Teaching and writing

In 1805, Opie was appointed a professor at the Royal Academy and from May 1806 gave a series of four lectures which were published as a book after his death, with a memoir by his widow Amelia Opie, in 1809. His students at the academy included Henry Thomson. Opie was also known as a writer on art by his Life of Reynolds in Wolcot's edition of Matthew Pilkington's 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. Royal etiquete allowed for Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester to follow the Opie funeral procession in his carriages to St Paul's Cathedral. Opie's last portrait was of the Prince with whom Opie's wife, Amelia, shared a great interest in Abolitionism. Amongst the mourners at Opie's funeral were Sir Thomas Lawrence, J.M.W. Turner, Peter Finch Martineau and Henry Bone. Opie had no children.

<gallery perrow="4" widths="168" heights="168" caption="John Opie's paintings ">

File:Queen Boudica by John Opie.jpg|Boadicea Haranguing the Britons, 1793

File:Henry Fuseli by John Opie.jpg|Henry Fuseli, 1794

File:Amelia Opie by John Opie.jpg|Portrait of Amelia Opie, 1798

File:Thomas Girtin by John Opie.jpg|Thomas Girtin, 1800

File:John Opie (1761-1807) - Portrait of a Lady in the Character of Cressida - N01026 - National Gallery.jpg|Portrait of a Lady in the Character of Cressida, 1800

File:William Henry West Betty by John Opie.jpg|Master Betty as Young Norval, 1804

File:Philip Beaver RN.jpg|Philip Beaver, c.1805

File:Robert Southey (1774–1843), Aged 31 John Opie (1761–1807) Keswick Museum.jpg|Portrait of Robert Southey, 1806

</gallery>

References

Further reading

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.&nbsp;251 ff.).

  • Edwards, B. B. & Bulfinch, S. G. Biography of self-taught men: with an introductory essay (Boston: J.E. Tilton and company, 1859) pp.&nbsp;191–201.
  • Tregellas, Walter Hawken. Cornish worthies: sketches of some eminent Cornish men and families, volume 2 (London: E. Stock, 1884) pp.&nbsp;243–278.
  • Earland, Ada. John Opie and his circle (London : Hutchinson & co., 1911).
  • Rogers, John Jope. Opie and his works (London: P. and D. Colnaghi and co. etc., 1878).
  • Profile on Royal Academy of Arts Collections
  • John Opie on Artcyclopedia
  • The Cornish wonder: John Opie R.A. (Official website of the book of the same name by Viv Hendra)
  • 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)