John Opie Quotes

John Opie was born in Cornwall, England. He was a British Cornish historical and portrait painter. He painted many great men and women of his day, including members of the British Royal Family, and others who were most notable in the artistic and literary professions. 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. He painted five subjects for John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery; and until his death, his practice alternated between portraiture and historical work. In 1805, he was appointed a Professor at the Royal Academy. His students at the Academy included Henry Thomson. He married Amelia Alderson in 1798.