St Editha and the Nuns of St MaryBy Ford Madox Brown, Thomas Matthews Rooke 1908 Accession number: 1959P41 Watercolour with bodycolour on paper laid on board. Width: 760 mm Height: 930 mm InformationThis watercolour is a copy of the second window of the south side of the Chancel Clerestory, St Edith's, Tamworth, Staffordshire. It depicts St Editha as abbess. She is seen on the left, surrounded by her nuns who are picking flowers to present to the Virgin and Child, on the right. It is one of three watercolour copies in the Birmingham collection commissioned by J. R. Holliday, an avid collector of Morris and Co. stained glass cartoons, from Thomas Matthews Rooke (1842-1942). According to a letter written in 1935 by G. S. Holliday'Mr Holliday took photographs of [the windows] & enlarged them & prepared them for Mr. Rooke ... to colour from the originals. Mr Rooke spent some weeks [at Tamworth] on the work (by special arrangement with Mr Holliday who was satisfied that it was a good reproduction of the colour in the windows themselves).' (Unpublished letter from G. S. Holliday to Dr Bonseer, 29 March 1935, BMAG)Rooke worked as Burne-Jones's studio assistant from 1869 until the latter's death in 1898. From 1878 until 1893 Rooke also spent half of his time producing watercolours for Ruskin's project to record old buildings threatened with demolition or restoration. Rooke was a talented painter in his own right and produced watercolours and oils of religious, imaginative and architectural subjects. On the back of the board on the watercolour of the second window is a label for 'Messrs Charles Roberson & Co., Longacre, London' who also sold board to Burne-Jones.LM
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