Painter. He received recognition as a late 18th century portrait painter, who excelled beautifully capturing his subjects' richness of clothing along with the perfect flesh tones. He painted about 500 oil-on-canvas paintings with more than half being portraits. His parents were Bavarian immigrants, John Hoppner, a surgeon, and wife Mary Ann, who served at George II's court at St James Palace. Baptized in Whitechapel, a Roman Catholic German neighborhood at that time, he was the oldest of two children. As a boy, Hoppner sang in the choir at the Chapel Royal at the Palace. He received an allowance from George III to study at the Royal Academy Schools. This royal favor, which was shown to him, led to court rumors that he was the king's illegitimate son, but no solid evidence was found. In 1778 he received a silver medal for a still life drawing, in 1780 held his first exhibit at the Royal Academy, and in 1782 received the Academy's Gold Medal for a historical painting of King Lear. On July 8, 1781 he married Phoebe Wright, the youngest daughter of the first American-born sculptor, Patience Lovell Wright, who e migrated as a widow to England in 1771 bringing Phoebe with her. With the marriage, his royal allowance stopped. The couple had five children. His earliest interest were landscapes and mystic angels, but by 1873 he had found portrait painting more profitable. He was very good at his profession, and eventually, had only the elite commissioning him. The background of his portraits were rooms in the St. James Palace or landscapes from English countrysides. Known for his ability to capture children's cherub-like expressions, in 1785 his three portraits of the youngest daughters of George III were exhibited. Besides children of nobility, he painted his three oldest sons, which were exhibited as "Portraits of Children" at the Royal Academy of 1791 . Other subjects besides the Royal family included beautiful ladies of nobility, whose names have been lost in time; military officers with their gold medals resting on red coats; the Duke of Wellington at age 26; Sir Walter Scott donned in his long gray wig and dark robe; a full-length portrait of Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson; and William Pitt the Younger . In 1789 he was appointed portraitist to the Prince of Wales, who would become George IV. He had been recommended in 1790 to Catherine the Great of Russia as the "young British artist with the most talent." He had been requested to paint a portrait of the P rincess of Wales in her wedding gown , but after responding aggressively to some of the king's art criticism, he lost the opportunity. With his success in royal portraits, many thought he would be the replacement for Sir Joshua Reynolds, yet at Reynolds' death, his rival, Thomas Lawrence, eventually captured this place of honor being President of the Royal Academy and the position of painter to the king. Reynolds' style can be seen his paintings, yet he had developed his own romantic style with more movement and color. All three men often painted the same subjects but years apart. Drawing landscapes while traveling, he loved trips through the English countryside along with trips to Scotland and Wales. Leaving England for the first time in 1793, he traveled to Paris in a five-day journey with other artists and authors, saw the collection of paintings in the Louvre Museum, and came home inspired. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1795. In 1801 he had a fall from his coach breaking his arm, and did not exhibit that year. The first decade of the 19 th century was consider a success, but he had health problems. He became withdrawn and not regularly socializing with his academia friends. He suffered from liver problems for years, which caused loss of fine motor movements in his fingers, not being focused and easily agitated, thus he did not paint. He was an art critic for the "Morning Post," and wrote caustic reviews at times. As one of the best-informed painters of his era, he was a contributor to the "Quarterly Review" until 1809 when his health declined. Later in life, he turned to literature, translating Oriental verse into English with mediocre results. Among his own art collection the portrait of Jonathan Buttall or better known as "The Blue Boy," which was painted by Thomas Gainsborough. He had a seizure in 1809, which left him very weak for months, sleeping at long intervals before becoming comatose three days before his death. Dying in London, he had a private funeral, thus his demise virtually went unnoticed due to his long period of retirement from painting. His obituary was written by William Gifford. Reviewing a survey of his paintings done a few decades after his death, several of the listed paintings' locations are unknown in the 21st century. Besides his paintings being in private collections, they are in museums in the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Russia and Spain. Some of his paintings did not meet the test of longevity as the type of paints used faded in time losing the richness of the deep colors. His full-length portrait of a youthful forty-year-old Lady Louisa Manners sold in 1901 for a record price of any portrait sold at auction. Today, depending on the subject and size of the portrait, his portraits can be purchased at auction for as much as $10,000 a piece.