Opie

Opie, John (1761-1807), was in his youth befriended by Wolcot (" Peter Pindar") and enabled to enter upon the career of an artist. He became A.R.A. in 1786 and R.A. in 1787, lectured at the Royal Institution, and wrote a treatise on the cultivation of art in Great Britain. His chief pictures are The Assassination of James I. of Scotland and The Death of Rizzio, now at the Guildhall; and portraits of Dr. Johnson, Hannah More, Charles James Fox, Priestley, and Lady Hamilton. His second wife (nee Alderson) wrote, besides some poems and several novels and tales, very popular in their day, Memorials of some historical interest, she having been a leader of literary society. She died in 1853.