Michael Angelo Rooker
Encyclopedia
Michael "Angelo" Rooker (1746 – 3 Mar 1801) was an English oil and watercolour painter of architecture and landscapes, illustrator and engraver. He was also the principal scene painter at the Haymarket Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...

.

Life and work

Michael was the son of artist Edward Rooker
Edward Rooker
Edward Rooker was an English engraver, draughtsman and actor.-Life and work:Rooker was born in Towcester in Northamptonshire around 1712, to Michael and Ann Rooker, and was a pupil of Henry Roberts, a landscape engraver. He became celebrated for his architectural plates, which he executed in an...

 and Elizabeth (née) Coatham and was taught engraving by his father and drawing by Paul Sandby
Paul Sandby
Paul Sandby was an English map-maker turned landscape painter in watercolours, who, along with his older brother Thomas, became one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768.-Life and work:...

 at the St. Martin's Lane school
St. Martin's Lane Academy
The St. Martin's Lane Academy, which was the precursor of the Royal Academy, was organized in 1735 by William Hogarth, from the circle of artists and designers who gathered at Slaughter's Coffee House at the upper end of St. Martin's Lane, London. The artistic set that introduced the Rococo style...

 in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and at the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

. It was Sandby who called him Michael "Angelo" Rooker in jest, but the name stuck!

In 1765 he exhibited some 'stained' drawings at the exhibition in Spring Gardens, London and in 1768 a print by him of the 'Villa Adriana' (after Richard Wilson
Richard Wilson (painter)
Richard Wilson was a Welsh landscape painter, and one of the founder members of the Royal Academy in 1768. Wilson has been described as '...the most distinguished painter Wales has ever produced and the first to appreciate the aesthetic possibilities of his country.' He is considered to be the...

), was published. In 1770 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy. In 1772 he exhibited a painting of Temple Bar
Temple Bar
Temple Bar may refer to:* The Temple Bar, a spot in London* Temple Bar, Dublin, a cultural quarter in Dublin city* Temple Bar, Ceredigion, a village in Wales* Temple Bar Magazine, British literary magazine published 1860 to 1906...

, and he contributed some illustrations to an edition of Sterne, published that year. Most of the landscapes in Kearsley's 'Copperplate Magazine' (1776-1777) were engraved by him, as well as a few plates in its successor, 'The Virtuosi's Museum', and he both drew and engraved the headings of the 'Oxford Almanack
Oxford Almanack
The Oxford Almanack is an annual almanac published by the Oxford University Press for the University of Oxford since 1674. The Oxford University Press originally held a monopoly on publishing almanacs...

' for several years, for each of which he received 50 pounds.

For a long time he was chief scene-painter at the Haymarket Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...

 in London, and appeared in the playbills as Signer Rookerini; but a few years before his death he was discharged, in consequence, it is said, of his refusal to aid in paying the debts of Colman, the manager.

In 1788 he began to make autumnal tours in the country, to which we owe most of those drawings which entitle him to an honourable place among the founders of the watercolour school. They are chiefly of architectural remains in Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

, Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

, and other counties, which he drew well, and treated with taste and refinement. His figures and animals were artistically introduced.

Rooker became depressed after his discharge from the Haymarket theatre, and died suddenly in his chair in Dean Street
Dean Street
Dean Street is a street in Soho, London, England, running between Oxford Street to the north and Shaftesbury Avenue to the south.-Historical figures:The street has a rich history. In 1764 a young Mozart gave a recital at 21 Dean Street...

, Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...

, on 3 March 1801. His drawings were sold at Squib's auction room in Saville Row in the following May, and realised 1,240 pounds.

Rooker was unmarried and lived his whole life in London. He exhibited one drawing at the Society of Artists
Society of Artists
The Society of Artists of Great Britain was founded in London in May 1761 by an association of artists in order to provide a venue for the public exhibition of recent work by living artists, such as was having success in the long-established Paris salons....

, and ninety-eight at the Royal Academy. He was admired by J M W Turner who learnt an aspect of painting technique called "colour scaling" by copying Rooker's "Gatehouse at Battle Abbey", and purchased over a dozen of Rooker's paintings after his death.

Gallery

Further reading

  • Patrick Conner. Michael "Angelo" Rooker (British watercolours) (Tiger Books, illustrated ed. 1984).
  • Philip H. Highfill, Kalman A. Burnim, Edward A. Langhans. A biographical dictionary of actors, actresses, musicians, Volume 13 (Southern Illinois University Press, 1991) p88 ff.

External links

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