Page:Women worth emulating (1877) Internet Archive.djvu/99

Rh brought from his native Cornwall, where his youthful genius had burst through all the impediments of a humble station, a very limited education, and a life of toil. Dr. Walcot, when visiting Cornwall, saw some pictures by a self-taught artist which arrested his attention. He was told the name, circumstances, and age of the painter, and he set off to find him. Opie was working in a saw-pit, when he was called out to answer the question, "Can you paint?" and the reply he gave was both rustic and ready, "Oh, yes; I can pe'aint a farmyard, and King George." The interview ended in the youth accompanying Dr. Walcot to London, where, by diligent study and ceaseless industry supplementing his natural genius, he became not merely a rustic wonder to be stared at, patronized, and then neglected by aristocratic idlers, but a winner of a foremost place among the most gifted artists of the age.

It was, however, in 1797, a great surprise to many circles that the beautiful and gifted Amelia Alderson should have accepted the man whom Allan Cunningham calls an"inspired peasant." She was gay, fond of and shining in society, and visited in the highest circles. He was grave, fond of retirement, rather eccentric in conversation, and devoted to his noble art. In looks and manners, they were a contrast to each other; but some contrasts harmonize admirably. The solid worth and true genius of Opie which had raised him to eminence, won her esteem and regard, and her high