John Opie

In 1781,[6] having gained considerable experience as a portraitist travelling around Cornwall,[7] Opie moved to London with Wolcot. There they lived together, having entered into a formal profit-sharing agreement.[5] Although Opie had received a considerable artistic education from Wolcot, the doctor chose to present him as a self-taught prodigy;[8] 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."[9] 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.[5] The 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.[5][10]

Through the influence of "a Mrs Boscawen", Wolcot managed to have Opie introduced at the court of King George III.[11] 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 King George III.[12] 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.[5][10] In 1782 he first exhibited at the Royal Academy and in December of that year was married to Mary Bunn. The match, however, proved to be an unhappy one and they were eventually divorced in 1796 after her elopement.[10]

In 1799, Opie painted (oils) a portrait of Charlotte, Princess Royal, daughter of George III.[13]

Although socially reticent,[14] 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.[15][16]

Winter's Tale, Act II, scene III, (engraving after Opie for the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery)

After the initial burst of popularity, Opie's style rapidly fell out of fashion.[17] 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.[5][10]

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, 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[5][10] whom he had met at parties in Norwich, including one at Holkham Hall where he had gone to carry out some commissions for Holkham's owner, Thomas Coke. The commission included doing portraits of Coke's Whig friends.[18] 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.[5][10][19]

Opie painted many notable men and women including Mary Wollstonecraft, Samuel Johnson,[20] Francesco Bartolozzi,[21] John Bannister, Joseph Munden,[22] Charles James Fox,[23] William Betty,[24] 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.[10]