A family photograph of T. M. Rooke in old age (1931). Source: Burne-Jones, facing p. 101.
T. M. Rooke was born in Marylebone in 1842, the son of Philip Rooke, a Jermyn Street tailor and an enthusiastic amateur artist. In the mid 1860s Thomas trained at the National School of Design at South Kensington, and then in 1868 enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools. In 1869, on leaving the R.A. Schools, he applied to Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. for a post in their workshops, but instead was given a situation as an assistant in Burne-Jones' studio taking over the position left vacant by the previous assistant Charles Fairfax Murray. Rooke worked with Burne-Jones until his death in 1898 and the two became good friends. In 1872 Rooke married Leonora Jane Jones, a schoolmistress from the Channel Islands, who had worked as a governess for Margaret Burne-Jones. Their son Noel became a painter and wood-engraver.
Rooke's talents as a watercolourist and topographical draughtsman were highly regarded by John Ruskin, who sent him each year from 1878-93 to make drawings of cathedrals and ancient monuments on the continent in danger of decay or destruction. Rooke exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1876 and then later at the Grosvenor and New Galleries. In 1877 his painting The Story of Ruth was purchased by the Chantrey Bequest. In 1891 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Watercolour Society and a full member in 1903.
Rooke was also involved with the Arts and Crafts movement, designing painted furniture, gesso panels, and mural decorations. He helped to found the Art Workers' Guild in 1884 and exhibited with the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. He also did work for Sydney Cockerell. In the 1870s he had settled into his home at 7 Queen Anne's Gardens in the suburb of Bedford Park in West London where he lived until he died at age ninety-nine.
Bibliography
Burne-Jones, Coley. Burne-Jones Talking: His Conversations 1895-1898, preserved by His Studio Assistant Thomas Rooke. Edited by Mary Lago. Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 1981.
A Century of Master Drawings, Watercolours, & Works in Egg Tempera. London: Peter Nahum, nd.
"A Lych Gate." Peter Nahum at the Leicester Galleries. Web. 12 January 2026. https://www.leicestergalleries.com/browse-artwork-detail/MTY5NTc=.
Ruskin, John. Works. Vol. 30. Eds. E. T. Cook and Alexander Cook. London: George Allen, 1907.
Created 12 January 2026
Last modified 19 January 2026