Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

Michael [Angelo] Rooker, watercolourist and scene designer, was born in Bloomsbury, the son of Edward Rooker. In the 1760s, he collaborated with his father. He also studied under Paul Sandby and adopted the name ‘Angelo’, given in jest by Sandby. In 1769, he entered the Royal Academy Schools and later became an associate. He designed frontispieces for George Coleman’s edition of ‘The Dramatic Works of Beaumont and Fletcher’ (1778) and Thomas Cadell’s edition of Fielding’s ‘Works’ (1783). For 20 years he produced the frontispiece for the ‘Oxford Almanack’. In 1779, he was made Scene Painter at the Haymarket Theatre and also painted scenes for the Duke of Marlborough’s theatre at Blenheim. He died in Soho, just before his 55th birthday.

Places

England, Oxfordshire

Subjects

horseback, topography, townscape/cityscape, tree, horse, boy, man, woman, academic gown, college, student, bucket, road, university, church

Materials & Techniques

engraving, coloured engraving

Artist

Michael Angelo Rooker (1746 - 1801)
Joseph Skelton (1785 - 1850)

Title

St. Giles’s with Part of St. John’s College, Oxford

Date

Medium

Coloured engraving

Acquisition

Presented by Sir Nigel Ronald, January 1954

GAC number

15862