441/2012

Collection

Paintings, Prints and Drawings

Brief description

Group portrait of Alfred Rooke and his family at their home in Mount Park, Ealing, watercolour on paper, by Thomas Matthews Rooke (1842-1942), c.1891-2.

Title

Group portrait of Alfred Rooke and his family in their home in Mount Park, Ealing

Object name

painting
watercolour painting

Object number

441/2012

Location

On Display

Production person

Thomas Matthews Rooke (artist)

Production date

1891-1892 (painted)

Production place

London (painted)

Period

Victorian (1837-1901)

Material

paper
watercolour
gouache

Technique

painted

Physical description

Painting, watercolour on paper, mounted, glazed and framed, with a number of paper labels on the reverse.

Content description

The painting depicts a group of musicians in an interior. In the foreground a young woman with a violin and a young man with a cello are seated on either side of a small table. A two-sided music stand has been set up on the small table between them. The young woman's violin bow and roisin are on the table (along with a pot of heather, two books, a drink and a small plate of grapes) and she is arranging the sheet music in front of her. Behind them, in the middle-ground of the painting, a woman is seated at a piano. Her gaze is directed towards a man who stands with a violin tucked under his arm, holding the bow in one hand and some sheet sheet music in the other. On the left hand edge of the image an elderly woman wearing a black bonnet, shawl and spectacles is shown sitting in an armchair. A fireplace, with a collection of ornaments arranged above it, an alcove filled with shelves of bound volumes and some framed pictures can all be seen in the background. A chandelier and china cabinet are refelected in a mirror hanging over the fireplace.

Content object

chair
table
fireplace
piano
wallpaper
mirror
fan
plate
shelf
chandelier
mantel runner
violin
music stand
picture
cello
sheet music
book
glass
cabinet

Dimensions

Height: 42.1cm
Width: 46.0cm
Height: 67.7cm
Width: 72.5cm
Depth: 6.5cm

Website keywords

serving drink
living room furniture
seating
tables
house plants and cut flowers
mirrors
ornaments
pictures
textiles
wall treatments
fireplaces
images of living rooms
music and music making
Lighting

Label

Label text for the digital interactive located in the Reading Room (September 2015- June 2017):

Group portrait of Alfred Rooke and his family at home in Mount Park, Ealing, west London
By Thomas Matthews Rooke
Watercolour on paper, about 1891-2

This inviting scene shows the artist’s brother’s family preparing to play music together at their home in Ealing. The family enjoyed music, and often walked across the fields to visit Thomas in his home in the nearby garden suburb of Bedford Park, where he hosted musical evenings.

Their musical inclinations are also apparent in the tall bound volumes on the bookshelves, which are books of sheet music, protected from dust by leather slips on the shelf edges.

The furnishings of the room as in keeping with artistic tastes. The William Morris style wallpaper and the eighteenth-century style cabinet displaying blue and shite ceramics which you can see reflected in the mirror are typical of this type of decoration.

Label text for Art Fund, February 2012:
Group portrait of Alfred Rooke and his family in their home in Mount Park, Ealing, London, watercolour on paper by Thomas Matthews Rooke, 1891-2.

Rights note

This work is no longer in copyright, the artist died in 1942 so it expired in 2012.