Author: HOPPNER, John
Biography:
HOPPNER, John (1758-1810: ODNB)
He was baptised at St. Mary, Whitechapel, London, on 2 Apr. 1758 and is therefore unlikely to have been born on either 4 or 23 Apr., the dates given in DNB and ODNB. The baptismal register transcribed his name as Hebner, but his parents were German immigrants, the surgeon John Hoppner and his wife Mary Anne Hoppner. She may have had a position at the court of George III. Hoppner as a boy grew up at court, sang in the Chapel Royal choir, and received an allowance from the King until the time of his marriage in 1781. In 1775 he entered the Royal Academy Schools and embarked on what was eventually a successful career as a society portraitist. With only two exceptions on account of ill health, he exhibited regularly at the Academy every year between 1780 and 1809. In 1793 he became officially the portrait painter to the Prince of Wales, and in 1795 was elected an Academician. On 8 July 1781 he married Phoebe Wright (1761-1827) at St. George’s, Hanover Square. The couple went on to have five children, two of whom also became painters. One of those two, Richard Belgrave Hoppner (1786-1872), was educated at Eton and became a trusted friend of Byron, q.v. John Hoppner was also a writer. He wrote art reviews for the British Critic in the 1790s, and later for QR. Some of his verse versions of Oriental tales also appeared in periodicals before he issued a collection of them in 1805, using the preface to the first edition to defend his style of painting. In the preface to the second edition, he defended his poetry irritably against some slight criticisms in CR. Hoppner died at home in Charles St., St. James’s Square, on 23 Jan. 1810 and was buried at St. James’s churchyard, Hampstead Road, on 29 Jan. (ODNB 26 May 2025; DNB; ancestry.com 26 May 2025; findmypast.com 26 May 2025) HJ