| Eastern house. | Western house. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1746–47. | Chas. Green. | 1746–49. | Jas. Lacey. |
| 1748–51. | —— Dickenson. | 1750–61. | Mrs. Eliz. Morris. |
| 1751. | Jas. Ord. | 1761–63. | J. Fanshawe. |
| 1753–57. | Mrs. Barbra Johnson. | 1763–83. | Eliz. Pollard. |
| 1758. | W. Westbrook Richardson. | 1783–91. | John Opie. |
| 1759–75. | John Johnson. | 1791. | — Leverton. |
| 1776–83. | J. Twiney. | 1792– | Mallard and Richold. |
| 1783– | Thos. Pope. |
John Opie, portrait and historic painter, was born in Cornwall in 1761. Instead of following his father’s trade as a carpenter, he took up painting and attracted the notice of Dr. Wolcot (Peter Pindar), who brought him after a while to Exeter, and in 1780 to London. Here Opie became known as the “Cornish wonder,” and, indeed, the fact that he, a carpenter’s son in a remote Cornish village, without any regular instruction or opportunity of studying the work of great painters, should at the age of nineteen have produced pictures which the most distinguished artists in the country admired and envied, justified the name. Wolcot’s introductions were the means of Opie securing many valuable commissions, and his popularity became enormous. During the spring of 1782, his lodgings in Orange Court, Castle Street, Leicester Square, were thronged with rank and fashion, and after he had moved to Great Queen Street in the following year, the street was at times blocked with the carriages of his sitters. His popularity, however, waned as suddenly as it had risen. This he had expected, and had striven, and continued to strive, to perfect himself in his art, and to supply the deficiencies in his education. In 1791, he moved from Great Queen Street to No. 8, Berners Street. In 1805 he was elected professor of painting to the Royal Academy, and the lectures which were delivered only a few weeks before his death form a contribution of permanent value to the literature of art criticism. He died in April, 1807, and was buried in St. Paul’s.
The Council’s collection contains:—
[[411]]Plan of premises before 1779 (photograph).
[[411]]Elevation of premises in 1779 (photograph).
[[411]]Exterior of the tavern in 1811 as designed by William Tyler in 1785 (photograph).
[[411]]The façade, designed by F. P. Cockerell (1866) (photograph).
[[411]]Elevation of the north end of the Temple, as designed by Thomas Sandby in 1775 (photograph).
[[411]]The disastrous fire at Freemasons’ Hall. The scene of the conflagration of 1883, from a woodcut (photograph).
[[411]]The Temple, looking south (photograph).