John, an eminent painter, was born in the parish of St Agnes, near Truro in Cornwall, in 1761. Although he was the son of a poor carpenter, and was placed at a very early age in his father's shop, his artistic genius could not be suppressed. He decorated the walls of his paternal cottage with likenesses of his friends, and covered the deals which he planned with comic drawings in red chalk. But it was Dr Wolcott, better known as "Peter Pindar," who was the chief instrument in fostering his talents. That eccentric satirist, who was then a physician at Truro, hired him as a menial, encouraged his aspirations, and took the charge of his fortunes. After allowing him to gain facility of hand by practising as an itinerant portrait-painter, he brought him to London in 1781, and with both prose and verse introduced him to the world as "The Cornish Wonder." The public, who are always glad of anything to stare and gape at, were roused. The peasant artist soon found himself the gazng-stock of all the minions of fashion; it became no uncommon circumstance for the street in front of his house to be blocked up with carriages; and before a year had passed, he had painted the principal nobility, and had realized a handsome sum of money. But the tide of success which had risen so suddenly as suddenly ebbed. The fashionable world began to perceive that the manners of the rustic painter were too homely to be tolerated in their refined presence, and that his style of portraiture was too vigorous and natural to do justice to their aristocratic features. Accordingly they deserted him for some other novelty; the rest of the public followed their example; and even Peter Pindar, offended at some neglect, either real or imaginary, began to cast gashes at the man he had formerly eulogized. It was under these unexpected disappointments that the full strength of Opie's character began to appear. He set himself to remedy his defective education by studying the English classics, and by mingling in literary society. At the same time, his devotion to his art continued unabated; and though dexterous in executing a picture, he became careful in conceiving it, and fastidious in correcting it. The results of such unwearied industry were great and palpable. It is true that he never attained to refinement in his portraits, or to poetry in his historical pieces; but both in his portraits and historical pieces there was latterly a power of imitating the colouring of nature which, according to West, no artist had ever rivalled. Some of his historical pieces came into favour with the public; and his portrait of Fox was for a while the talk of the town. Soon after 1801 more commissions began to flow in upon him than he could execute. In 1807 the height of his ambition was attained, when he was raised to the professorship of painting in the Royal Academy. But he did not long enjoy his elevation. After delivering four lectures on Design, Invention, Chiaroscuro, and Colouring, he died on the 9th April 1807, and was buried near Sir Joshua Reynolds. His widow, the well-known writer, published his Lectures on Painting, with a Memoir, in 1809.

Some of the most popular pictures of Opie are, "The Murder of James I. of Scotland," "The Death of Rizzio," "Arthur taken Prisoner," "Hubert and Arthur," "Belisarius," and "Juliet in the Garden." (Cunningham's Lives of Painters, &c.)

Opie, Amelia, the wife of the preceding, was the daughter of Dr Alderson, a physician in Norwich, and was born there in 1769. The circumstances of her early life gave the bent to her after-career. In her girlhood she beguiled the solitude of her father's summer-house by composing songs and tragedies; on her visits to London, the superior society into which the accomplishments of her mind and the graces of her person introduced her, served to stimulate her aspirations; and after her marriage in 1798, she was encouraged by her husband to become a candidate for literary fame. Accordingly, in 1801, she published a novel entitled Father and Daughter. Although this tale showed no artistic ability in dealing either with incidents or with characters, yet it was the work of a lively fancy and a feeling heart, and speedily brought its author into notice. She was encouraged to publish a volume of sweet and graceful poems in 1802, and to persist in the kind of novel-writing which she had so successfully commenced. Adeline Mowbray followed in 1804, and Simple Tales in 1806. The death of her husband in 1807, and her return to Norwich, did not slacken her industry. She published Temper in 1812, Tales of Real Life in 1813, Valentine's Eve in 1816, Tales of the Heart in 1818, and Madeline in 1822. At length, in 1825, her assumption of the tenets and garb of the Quakers checked her literary ardour, and changed her mode of life. Besides a volume entitled Detraction Displayed, and several contributions in prose and verse to various periodicals, nothing afterwards proceeded from her pen. The rest of her life was spent in travelling and in the exercise of Christian benevolence. She died at Norwich in 1853. A Life of Mrs Opie, by Miss C. L. Brightwell, was published in 1854.