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John Opie

20 of 896 portraits matching these criteria:

- subject matching 'Making art'

John Opie, by John Opie, 1785 -NPG 47 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Regency Portraits Catalogue

John Opie

by John Opie
1785
29 1/4 in. x 24 1/2 in. (743 mm x 622 mm)
NPG 47

Inscriptionback to top

The original canvas, relined, was inscribed: I. Opie/Pictor/1785 (tracing by Scharf 18 March 1867 in registered packet 47, and see Sir George Scharf’s Trustees’ Sketchbooks, XI, 54).

This portraitback to top

The portrait is one of a series of self-portraits Opie painted from his youth until the end of his life, mainly as experiments in various styles. NPG 47 shows him aged 24; a variant without palette and brushes, painted in a looser technique, was lent by Mrs Romney Fox to Plymouth 1962-3 (38).

Physical descriptionback to top

Half-length to left with brush and palette, dark grey coat, white neckcloth and shirt-frill; long dark brown hair in fringe, grey eyes, fresh complexion, full lips; plain dark brown background.

Provenanceback to top

Bought from W. Loftus Rickitts 1858.

Exhibitionsback to top

'Opie and Bone', Truro, 1951; 'John Opie RA', Plymouth, 1957; 'John Opie', Arts Council, 1962-3, catalogues by Mary Peter.

Reproductionsback to top

Stipple by Ridley in The European Magazine, 1 December 1798.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Walker, Regency Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 1985, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

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