OPIE, John

English painter. He was born in a tin-mining district in Cornwall, where his father was a mine carpenter. He was launched in London in 1781 as the 'Cornish Wonder', an untutored natural geniusGLOSSARYin classical Rome, a person's invisible tutelary god. In art from the classical period onwards, the low-ranking god was depicted as a winged, usually childish figure., by John Wolcot, doctor, sometime pupil of Wilson, satirist ('Peter Pindar') and skilful impresario. The young Opie's talent lay in painting peasant types in strong chiaroscuroGLOSSARYIn painting, the modelling of form (the creation of a sense of three-dimensionality in objects) through the use of light and shade. The introduction of oil paints in the 15th century, replacing tempera, encouraged the development of chiaroscuro, for oil paint allowed a far greater range and control of tone. The term chiaroscuro is used in particular for the dramatic contrasts of light and dark introduced by Caravaggio. When the contrast of light and dark is strong, chiaroscuro becomes an important element of composition., and he is best with old people and children, whom he treats with Rembrandtesque effects of light. His large compositions for Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery, popular in engravings, were influential in establishing the costume-history piece, but once his Tenebrist vision was smothered by elegant face-painting, he declined into insipidity.

His second marriage, in 1798, to the novelist Amelia Alderson led to his painting more literary subjects. From 1799 he had a studio in Norwich. He became a Royal Academician in 1787, was made a Professor at the Royal academy in 1805 and gave a series of lectures, published posthumously in 1809.