* Opie Travelling Tinker {1873} Loc? [PA]

Opie, Edward (1810-94; English)
Travelling Tinker
Oil on canvas, c.78 x 60 cm
Purchased, 1873
Unidentified; present location unknown

This painting, bought for a modest sum, was listed in both NGV 1894 and 1905 as on loan to regional Victorian galleries, and its later fate is unclear.

The artist, as noted in NGV 1894, worked in Cornwall, and was the great-nephew of a more famous Cornish historical painter, John Opie (1761-1807). Edward exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, making his living mainly through portraiture.

[comparative photo: Edward Opie, the Artist’s Father 1836 (St Agnes Museum, Cornwall)]

Refs.

AR 1873, p.69; NGV 1894, p.98 (IV.McArthur Gallery, no.76: as on loan to the Bendigo Art Gallery; size given as 32 x 24 inches); NGV 1905 (IX.Pictures on loan to country galleries) 

For the artist, see Bénézit 10, pp.614-15 and http://cornwallartists.org/cornwall-artists/edward-opie (also mentioning John Opie). For the work reproduced above, see https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/edward-opie-the-artists-father-15221 (accessed 10 March 2020)