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Rh forming the internal management of hospitals, and in this was warmly encouraged by Southey (Colloquies, ii. 322). She gave material assistance to Mrs. Inchbald, and took much trouble about the subscription for Miss Mitford in 1843. She drew profile likenesses in pencil of her visitors, and carefully preserved several hundreds of the sketches. Three of these drawings, portraits of members of the Gurney family, are in the possession of J. H. Gurney.

In appearance Mrs. Opie was of average height, rather stout, and of fair complexion. She had brown hair and grey eyes. Perhaps the most pleasing portrait is that painted by her husband soon after their marriage, now in the possession of Mrs. William Sidgwick. It was engraved in 1807 to accompany Mrs. Taylor's memoir of her in the ‘Cabinet.’ There are other paintings by Opie, and many engravings. A full list will be found in John Jope Rogers's ‘Opie and his Works.’ H. P. Briggs, R.A., painted her in 1835; the picture became the property of J. H. Gurney. A very fine bust by David d'Angers, dated 1836, came, like the medallion of 1829, into the possession of Mrs. Grosvenor Woods; there is an engraving of the medallion in Miss Brightwell's ‘Life of Mrs. Opie.’

Mrs. Opie's works, other than those already noticed, were: 1. ‘An Elegy to the Memory of the Duke of Bedford,’ 1802. 2. ‘The Warrior's Return and other Poems,’ 1808. 3. ‘Temper, or Domestic Scenes,’ 3 vols. 1812. 4. ‘Tales of Real Life,’ 3 vols. 1813; 3rd edit. 1816. 5. ‘New Tales,’ 4 vols. 1818. 6. ‘Tales of the Heart,’ 4 vols. 1820. 7. ‘Tales of the Pemberton Family, for the use of Children,’ 1825. 8. ‘The Black Man's Lament, or how to make Sugar,’ 1826. In 1814 she edited Mrs. Roberts's ‘Duty,’ with a character of the author. A collected edition of her ‘Miscellaneous Tales’ appeared in 1845–7, in twelve volumes. 

OPIE, JOHN (1761–1807), portrait and history painter, was born at St. Agnes, about seven miles from Truro, Cornwall, in May 1761. His mother's maiden name was Tonkin, and he was descended on both sides from old Cornish families, but his father and his grandfather were carpenters. Though educated only at the village school, he made such progress, especially in arithmetic and Euclid, that at ten years old he began to instruct others, and at the age of twelve set up an evening school for poor children. In his mathematical bent he was encouraged by a maternal uncle, John Tonkin, who called him ‘the young Sir Isaac.’ But his tendency to art was stronger still, and prevailed in spite of the objections of his father, who wished him to follow his own trade of carpentering. His mother, as is usual, was on his side; and some copies of pictures which he made from memory, and a portrait he drew one Sunday morning of his father in a rage (he is said to have irritated him on purpose to catch the expression), probably helped to turn the scale in his favour. He soon got employment as a travelling portrait-painter, and when about fifteen attracted the attention of Dr. Wolcot (Peter Pindar) [q. v.], who was then attempting to establish himself at Truro. On one of his expeditions he went to Padstow, and at Place House, Pawston, the seat of the Prideaux family, he painted the whole household, down to the dogs and the cats (for an account of these pictures and others by Opie in Cornwall, see letter on the ‘Antiquity of the Family of Opie,’ Mag. of Fine Arts, iii. 210, &c.) From Padstow he brought twenty guineas, which he gave his mother, and said that in future he should maintain himself. Other patrons were Sir John St. Aubin and Lord Bateman, who employed him in painting old men, beggars, &c., and Opie painted his own portrait for Lord Bateman in 1777. He had a number of Cornish sitters between 1776 and 1778, and he painted the notorious Dolly Pentreath [see ] shortly before her death on 27 Dec. 1777. Of this portrait Opie made an etching, the only one by his hand.

It was, however, Dr. Wolcot who exerted the chief influence upon him. Conflicting stories are told of the early relations between the two, but there is no doubt that the doctor detected his talent, provided him with materials, instructed him in their use, lent him pictures and drawings to copy, and took him into his house. Soon there was a demand for portraits by Wolcot's protégé, and the doctor made the youth raise his price to half a guinea a head. At length it occurred to Wolcot that he might improve his own prospects, and Opie's also, by moving from Truro, and in 1779 he went to Helston, and practised there or at Falmouth for the next two years. He