532 O P 
O'PIE (John), an eminent painter of the Englifn 
fchool, was born in 1761, at St. Agnes, feven miles from 
Truro in Cornwall. His father was a carpenter, educated 
and living like other country mechanics ; and his views 
for his Ion were merely to bring him up to his own trade. 
The boy, however, from early years, difclofed a fuperior 
underltanding and llreng.th of mind, and became diftiii- 
guiflied at a village-fchool by the rapidity with which he 
acquired all the indruCtion it afforded.. We are told, that 
at ten years of age he could folve difficult problems of 
Euclid 5 and that, in his twelfth year, he let up an evening- 
fchool at St. Agnes, in which he taught arithmetic and 
w riting. For thefe acquifitions he probably was indebted 
to an uncle, who was a good arithmetician, and encou¬ 
raged his literary progrefs. But before this period he 
had given ftrong tokens of a difpolition for the arts of 
defign, which appears in him to have been as nearly in¬ 
nate as in mod of the art ids of whom anecdotes to that 
purpofe are recorded. His fird experiment, about the 
age of ten, was to imitate a companion in drawing a but¬ 
terfly. Soon after, being with his father, who was em¬ 
ployed in the repair of a gentleman’s houfe. at Truro, he 
was fo mpch druck with the picture of a farm-yard, that, 
after attentively furveying of it, he went home, procured 
canvafs and colours, and, by piece-meal, produced, from 
memory, a tolerable refemblance of the work. He then 
made a bold attempt at portrait. When between ten and 
eleven, one Sunday, his mother being at church, and his 
father fitting in a little parlour reading the Bible, be 
placed himfelf in the kitchen oppofite, and began, to (ketch 
his father’s figure, frequently running in to get a nearer 
view of his face, till the old man was put quite in apaffion at 
the interruption. This was what the young artid wanted. 
He indantly marked down his animated features, and 
finiflied his piece, the great refemblance of which excited 
no little pride both in his parent and himfelf. His bent 
was now decided ; and, purfuing this new object with 
great diligence, (though at fird againd his father’s appro¬ 
bation, as likely to fpoil him for a carpenter,) he fur- 
nifhed the houfe with portraits of all the family and of 
his companions. 
His rultic fame now reached the ear of Dr. Wolcot, a 
perlon fince well known by his poetical productions un¬ 
der the name of Peter Pindar, who, 'pofleffing a tade for 
the fine arts, with a few tolerable pictures, undertook 
both the patronage and indruCtion of this rifing genius. 
Through his affiltance young Opie improved io much, 
that, while yet a boy, be commenced a portrait-painter 
by profeffion, and obtained employment among the neigh¬ 
bouring families ; and it is to the credit of his filial feel¬ 
ings, that he brought to his mother the fird twenty gui¬ 
neas he earned, and announced his intention of main¬ 
taining himfelf for the future. 
At length, in 1781, he came to London, dill under 
the aufpices of Dr. Wolcot, w'nofe powerful pen was not 
filent in bis caule ; and the Cornifh boy, jud fprung from 
a tin-mine, and praCtifing the difficult art of painting in 
a forcible manner, and in an original and untutored dyle, 
was the theme of wide-fpread reputation. By the inter¬ 
vention of Mrs. Bofcawen, to whom the doCtor men¬ 
tioned the talents of Opie, his works became the theme 
of fafhionable converfation ; and the early produCtions-of 
his felf-taught genius obtained for him the title of the 
painting Chatterton; but, though he drongly refembled 
that wonderful poet in ardour and perfeverance, a jud 
didinCfion is claimed in favour of his moral charaCfer; 
and, indead of defertingthe family whodepended on him, 
he had the happinels of feeing a mother and fider as much 
benefited as they mud have been delighted by his pros¬ 
perity. _ ( 
It being now quite the fafhion to talk of Opie, and to 
know him, he was afmod overwhelmed with folicitations 
for portraits by perfons of the highed didinCfion, who 
prelled upon each other to be fird in his dudy, and infure 
the exertions of his talents in their favour. But in lit- 
I E. 
tie lefs than a twelvemonth, the novelty ceafing, this 
burd of occupation ceafed aifo. It was found that 
the engaging graces and the enchanting fmiles of the 
ladies were not tadefully difplayed ; or due dignity and 
confequence given to the gentlemen ; and a regard to 
truth, fimple and unadorned, not being the guide to 
judgment with the many, Opie was left for a while, almod 
as if he bad never been known, to fcramble bis way on¬ 
ward, as chance, or the happy exercife of his powers, might 
affid and direCt him. But he was not a man to be over¬ 
come by fuch a change of circumdances ; and perhaps it 
was fortunate for his reputation that it was experienced 
by him. Being gifted by nature with the mod refolute 
indudry and perfeverance, he was determined not the lefs 
to merit a continuance of the fuccefs he had enjoyed ; 
and employed the time now left upon his hands in at¬ 
tempts at compofition of rudic fubjefts, and in more re¬ 
gular hiJlorical painting. 
By the edablifhment of the Shakefpeare Gallery in 
1786, Opie was fird fully made know.11 to the public; the 
latent powers of his mind were there called forth, and 
what he wanted of academical and claffical information, 
he compenfated for, in great meafure, by charaCfer, by 
force, and by a bold imitation of nature, in individual 
parts. For this gallery he painted five large pictures, of 
which the fined was from the Winter’s Tale ; Leontes 
adminidering the oath to Antigonus to take charge of the 
child. But lie produced, about the fame time, a work of 
far more excellent quality in edeCt and colour, viz. the 
Affiiffination of James I. of Scotland, now in the common- 
council room at Guildhall; a work which, for hue and 
colour, challenges competition with the bed, and is 
wrought with the greated boldnefs and effeCt. 
The fpirit of commerce having been fuccefsfully ex¬ 
erted by employing hidoric art in the illudration of our 
great dramatic author, other fpeculations upon the fame 
principle were foon entered upon. Macklin adopted the 
Bible as the bafis on which to form a gallery of pictures ; 
and Bowyer, the Englifh hidorian Hume; and both were 
happy to avail themfelves of the talents fo powerfully ex¬ 
hibited by Opie, who painted many pictures for each of 
thefe inditutions with varied fuccefs. 
Of Opie’s dyle, the more engaging charaCteridics are 
breadth, limplicity, and force; its defeCts are want of 
grace and variety of invention, and of elegance and re¬ 
finement in expreffion and execution. The objects of his 
choice were among the ftriking and terrible, rather than 
the agreeable and beautiful ; and the materials he intro¬ 
duced were more accordant to his ideas of the piCturefque 
than the proper. He frequently violated codume, not 
for want of knowledge fo much as from an iniatiable de¬ 
fire of contrad ; and fometimes from conveniency. His 
tade lay in the reprefentation of natural objeCts with 
drong effeCt; he therefore made ufe of armour, or of dra¬ 
peries which he had in his dudy, and, like Rembrandt, 
adopted them as his antiques, and ufed them according as 
he felt they would bed promote his immediate end. 
Thefe defeCts are redeemed, to the well-informed eye, by 
the abfolute truth of imitation in which they are wrought, 
by the expreffion of his heads, particularly of old men, or 
of drongly-marked characters, which are exceedingly im- 
preffive, by the energetic aCtions of his principal figures, 
by the broad and daring execution of his pencil, and by 
the magic force of his chiaro-fcuro. In the latter point 
no artid ever excelled him. His figures projeCt from the 
canvas in fome of his bed works ; and, if feen under fa¬ 
vourable circumdances, would be abfolutely illufive. 
When the tide of hidoric commiffion fubfided, Opie 
employed himfelf in reprefenting icenes of common life, 
as w'eli as in portraits. Cottage-vifits, an old foldier at 
an ale-houfe door, fortune-tellers, and that clafs of ma¬ 
terials which the Dutch and Flemifh maders have recom¬ 
mended by high finifli and convenient neatnefs of fize, 
he painted upon a large fcale. Tile reputation fo judly 
due to his talents had now become deadily attached to" 
him; 
