Michael 'Angelo' Rooker, (1746-1801), Wookey Hole, near Wells, Somerset. About 1800. Watercolour

Watercolour entitled 'Wookey Hole, near Wells, Somerset', location of some of Britain's largest cave systems. Signed and inscribed with title.

Given by Victor Rienaecker

Historical Significance:

Rooker began his early training under his father Edward Rooker (d.1774) the architectural draughtsman and engraver as well as studying at the St. Martin’s Lane Academy. In 1769 he enrolled as a student at the Royal Academy, where he became A.R.A the following year. H assisted the topographical artist Paul Sandby in the 1770s, engraving a series of his country-house views to be published in The Copperplate Magazine. He worked as an engraver during his early career. However failing eyesight meant that he had to change profession and from 1779-1800 he was employed as a scene-painter for the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. From the 1780s Rooker annually went on a sketching tour each autumn. It appears that he did not travel beyond England and Wales. Early sketches from these tours are in pen and ink, from the 1780s he began to work predominantly in brush and watercolour. His attention to minute detail makes his works unrivalled in the representation of architectural texture.

Wookey Hole is a village situated on the edge of the Mendip Hills near Wells in Somerset. It is known for its show cave, formed through the erosion of the limestone hills by the river Axe, which passes through the caves in a series of underground streams before emerging at Wookey Hole.

The area of Wookey Hole, with its caves, cliffs and river were an established popular tourist destination when Rooker visited at the end of the eighteenth century. In 1707 James Brome wrote in his Travels over England, Scotland and Wales (1707) ‘as Italy has Virgil’s Grotto, and the Sybil’s Cave by Puteoli, so England hath Ocky-Hole by Wells. There are early watercolours of the area by Bernard Lens (See Iolo Williams, Early English Water-colours, 1952, page 18 and plate 29). By the end of the eighteenth century when Rooker made this watercolour, the cult of the Sublime, with its interest in force of nature, made it an area of interest. The Rev. Richard Warner, in his A Walk through some of the Western Counties of England published in 1800 describes the ‘gloomy recess’ where the ‘cavern opens its dire jaws’ to the force of the river Axe (pp.208-9).

Rooker probably visited Wookey Hole in 1794. An untraced drawing of ‘Wookey Hole Mill in 1794’ clearly by Rooker is reproduced in Robin Atthil’s book Old Mendip (See: Corner, Michael Angelo Rooker, p.166). This portrait view emphasises the dramatic height of the cliffs. Characteristically, Rooker observes the varied textures in the view. The austere cliffs contrast with the soft forms of foliage of the trees and bushes, delicately represented by short brushstrokes. In the foreground the Axe surges forward in a waterfall. The natural force of this water is used for a papermill further down stream, which was established in 1610. Two groups of figures are shown in the foreground looking at the sight. The combination of the force of nature, in the ‘thundering torrent’ of the Axe powering through the cliff upon which trees manage to grow make it an area that embodies the ideals of the Sublime.

Very little is known about Michael 'Angelo' Rooker (1746-1801). He was one of the first students at the newly founded Royal Academy in 1769. At the first Royal Academy exhibition in 1769 Rooker had exhibited oils, and was elected an Associate Royal Academician in 1770. Later he abandoned oil and having secured regular work as a theatrical scene painter, he exhibited watercolours like this one shown in 1800. It was sold as a ‘finished drawing’ at Rooker’s posthumous sale in 1801.

Wookey Hole in Somerset with its famous caves was a very popular location for 18th century artists. As a landscape it had the much valued qualities of being rugged, wild and awe inspiring.

P.44-1921