Biographies

Thomas Matthew Rooke (1842 – 1942) He was born in Marylebone, London, the son of an amateur artist. He received his artistic education at the South Kensington and the Royal Academy Schools and in 1869 applied to work for Morris and Company. He was deputed to studio where he remained until the end of Burne-Jones’s life. His own religious subjects had some success, for instance The Story of Ruth was bought for the Chantrey Bequest in 1877 (Tate Gallery). In 1878 Burne-Jones recommended him to Ruskin who was looking for artists to record old buildings threatened with demolition or restoration. Until 1893, Rooke spent half his time working for Ruskin; these watercolours are now in the Ruskin Museum, Sheffield. He produced a further series for the Society for the Preservation of Pictorial Records of Ancient Works of Art. These are in the Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery.. He was also much involved with the Arts and Crafts Movement, and was a founding member of the Art Workers’ Guild in 1884. Burne-Jones’s