John Opie: A Cornish Wonder and the Dawn of Romantic Portraiture Born in Mithian, a small village near St Agnes in Cornwall, on May 16th, 1761, John Opie’s life was one of remarkable early talent and a tragically curtailed career. He wasn't simply a painter; he was, as his contemporaries dubbed him, a “Cornish Wonder,” a child prodigy whose skill with brush and canvas defied conventional expectations for the time. His story is not jus…