Rooker A.R.A., Michael Angelo (1746 – 1801) – Hampshire; Netley Abbey.

Rooker's watercolours of architectural subjects catered to two popular and overlapping tastes in the late eighteenth century; the Antiquarian and the Picturesque. His fine and precise draughtsmanship provides an accurate record of the abbey ruins. His use of pictorial devices such as the trees and the well observed group of bucolic figures give his subject context. Rooker was a scene painter at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from 1778, hence his well managed staging of this composition.