"The Lady Chapel and Apse of Bourges Cathedral" by Thomas Matthews Rooke RWS 1842-1942

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The Lady Chapel and Apse of Bourges Cathedral

Thomas Matthews Rooke RWS 1842-1942

Watercolor

Signed and inscribed 'Bourges' and dated 1899; inscribed verso 'Lady Chapel Bourges Cathedral', and with artist's name and address

30 x 16.5 inches

Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours, 1900, no 199 (ill. in catalogue, no 25)

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Rooke was a gentle, endearing character, who became Burne-Jones’s studio assistant. He was a skillful and objective topographical draughtsman. John Ruskin sent him to Venice to record the mosaics of St Mark’s in 1871, and continued to employ him, often in France, until 1893, painting medieval buildings. His later work was undertaken for The Society for the Preservation of Pictorial Record of Ancient Works of Art, at the instigation of Sydney Cockerell. Each trip Rooke took resulted in one major watercolour for the Society, and as many others as he liked, such as this, to sell on his own account. Burne-Jones once described his work as ‘more like a map than a picture.’— Maas Gallery.

Last modified 21 April 2020