| Method | Copper engraving with hand colouring |
| Artist | Michael Angelo Rooker |
| Published | Oxford, 1786 |
| Dimensions | Image 293 x 450 mm, Sheet 342 x 490 mm |
| Notes |
The image for the Oxford Almanack of 1786, featuring a view of Exeter College from the gardens. Michael Angelo Rooker (1746-1801) was a British watercolour painter, scene designer and printmaker. The son of the artist and pantomime actor Edward Rooker and his wife Elizabeth Coatham, he used the middle name "Angelo" consistently from the 1760s after being given the nickname by the artist Paul Sandby to whom he was apprenticed. As a boy he entered into drawing competitions organised by the Society of Arts and by the 1763 he started regularly exhibiting at the Society of Artists. All of his early works were drawings and watercolours. In 1768, he was admitted to the School of the Royal Academy and became ARA in 1770. During his time at the School, he focused on painting in oils but continued working in watercolours. Rooker gave up oil painting after 1779 when he last exhibited oil paintings at the Royal Academy. Rooker continued to supply drawings and engravings for a number of publications including the Copper Plate Magazine. For twenty years Michael Angelo Rooker provided the images for the Oxford Almanack and worked with his father Edward on them until Edward's death in 1774 from whence Michael carried on providing the original image and the engraving. Rooker was appointed the scene painter at the Haymarket Theatre at the end of the 1770s and while is it debatable as to why, his drawing and engraving output declined. After Rooker's death in 1801 there was a sale at Squibb of his paintings, drawing, and personal collection of prints. Petter, Helen Mary. The Oxford Almanacks. Oxford. At the Clarendon Press. 1974. p75. Condition: Time toning to sheet. Creasing to top sheet edge. |
| Framing | mounted |
| Price | £175.00 |
| Stock ID | 52148 |