The Cornish Girl

The Cornish Girl at the Museum of Watford represents a type rather than a named individual — a genre subject drawing on the same interest in regional British identity that informed Welsh Lady and other works of this kind. Opie's Cornish origins gave this subject particular personal resonance: he was born in St Agnes, Cornwall, the son of a carpenter, and his rise to Royal Academician was one of the more remarkable social ascents in British art history. A 'Cornish Girl' painted by a Cornish painter carries autobiographical weight even when the subject is anonymous. The bold directness Opie brought to all his subjects is especially suited to genre portraits of ordinary people, where the absence of social pretension allowed him to observe and paint without the constraints of flattery or decorum.

A genre portrait of a Cornish girl would deploy Opie's technique in its most naturalistic mode — direct observation of a type rather than idealisation of an individual. The specific features of Cornish rural dress, the honest observation of a working-class face, and Opie's characteristic strong lighting all combine to create a work of documentary and aesthetic interest simultaneously.