Noel Rooke
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Noel Rooke (1881–1953) was a British
wood-engraver Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image or ''matrix'' of images into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and p ...
and artist. His ideas and teaching made a major contribution to the revival of British wood-engraving in the twentieth century.


Biography

Rooke was born in
Acton, London Acton () is a town and area in west London, England, within the London Borough of Ealing. It is west of Charing Cross. At the 2011 census, its four wards, East Acton, Acton Central, South Acton and Southfield, had a population of 62,480, a ...
and he would remain in London all of his life. His father was
Thomas Matthews Rooke Thomas Matthews Rooke (1842, London – 1942, London) was a British watercolourist. He worked as a designer, as an assistant to other artists, and was commissioned by John Ruskin to make architectural drawings. Life Ruskin hired Rooke from Mor ...
, for many years the studio assistant of
Edward Burne-Jones Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman ...
, and an accomplished artist in his own right. His mother Leonora Rooke (née Jones) had been governess to Burne-Jones's daughter, Margaret. Rooke studied in France at the Lycée de Chartres and then at the Godolphin School in Hammersmith, London. He completed his education at the
Slade Slade are an English rock band formed in Wolverhampton in 1966. They rose to prominence during the glam rock era in the early 1970s, achieving 17 consecutive top 20 hits and six number ones on the UK Singles Chart. The ''British Hit Singles ...
and the
Central School of Arts and Crafts The Central School of Art and Design was a public art school, school of fine arts, fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central ...
. On 31 December 1932, Rooke married one of his pupils, Celia Mary Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes. She practised as a wood engraver under the name
Celia Fiennes Celia Fiennes (7 June 1662 – 10 April 1741) was an English traveller and writer. She explored England on horseback at a time when travel for its own sake was unusual, especially for women. Early life Born at Newton Tony, Wiltshire,"June 7t ...
. Rooke died at West London Hospital on 5 October 1953.


Lethaby and the Central School of Arts and Crafts

In 1899, aged 18, Rooke was employed by
William Lethaby William Richard Lethaby (18 January 1857 – 17 July 1931) was an English architect and architectural historian whose ideas were highly influential on the late Arts and Crafts and early Modern movements in architecture, and in the fields of co ...
in the school holidays to make drawings of the Chapter House at
Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...
. This was the start of a fruitful association with Lethaby, who had become the first principal of the
Central School of Arts and Crafts The Central School of Art and Design was a public art school, school of fine arts, fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central ...
in 1896. He wanted it to become for design and the crafts what the Slade and the Royal Academy were for the fine arts.James Hamilton, ''Wood Engraving and the Woodcut in Britain c1890-1990'' (London, Barrie & Jenkins, 1994), . Rooke joined the Central School as a student in 1899. In the same year the calligrapher
Edward Johnston Edward Johnston, CBE (11 February 1872 – 26 November 1944) was a British craftsman who is regarded, with Rudolf Koch, as the father of modern calligraphy, in the particular form of the broad-edged pen as a writing tool. He is most fa ...
came to the Central School as a student, whereupon Lethaby immediately asked him to teach a class in calligraphy. His first class of seven students included Rooke,
Eric Gill Arthur Eric Rowton Gill, (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' describes Gill as ″the greatest artist-cra ...
, Graily Hewitt, T. J. Cobden Sanderson,
MacDonald Gill Leslie MacDonald Gill (6 October 1884 – 14 January 1947), commonly known as MacDonald Gill or Max Gill, was a noted early-twentieth-century British graphic designer, cartographer, artist and architect. Biography Born in Brighton, Gill was the ...
and Lawrence Christie.G. M. Ellwood, 'Famous Contemporary Art Masters: Noel Rooke' in ''Drawing and Design'' (December 1924). Johnston taught Rooke that the form of a letter should be determined by the tool making the letter, a principle which Rooke later applied to wood engraving. In 1904 Rooke also attended evening classes in wood engraving at the London County Council School of Photo-engraving and Lithography in Bolt Court, where he learned the skills of wood engraving from R. John Beedham. At the period Eric Gill gave classes in stone carving and inscriptions, and Rooke later gave Gill private lessons in wood engraving. In 1905 Rooke became a teacher of book illustration at the Central School, and introduced wood engraving for book decoration into his syllabus. He faced opposition from Frank Morley Fletcher and Sydney Lee who taught classes in colour woodcuts in the Japanese style. Lethaby had had to overcome opposition to Johnston's calligraphy classes, and, along with most artists at the time, saw wood engraving simply as the reproductive medium that it had been until then. He vetoed the introduction of the new style of wood engraving into the curriculum. When he left in 1911 Rooke was able introduce a class in lettering and wood engraving in 1912, and a class in wood engraving and poster design in 1913. In 1914 Rooke became head of the School of Book Production, a post that he held until 1946. He was an important member of a group whose ideas set the tone of the formative years of the Central School. This was a time of cross fertilisation where extraordinary people came together and barriers between crafts and skills were broken down. Lethaby was the editor of a series of books: ''the Artistic Crafts Series of Technical Handbooks'', and Rooke drew illustrations and diagrams for three of them - ''Bookbinding, and the care of books'' (1901) by Douglas Cockerell, ''Writing and Illuminating, and Lettering'' (1906) by Johnston and ''Hand-loom Weaving'' (1910) by Luther Hooper. These became standard works on their subject, and, along with the other handbooks in the series, ran into many editions.


His influence as a teacher

Rooke reacted against the reproductive wood engravings of the nineteenth century, where the drawing, the creative impetus of the artist, and the engraving, carried out by a skilled craftsman, were separate. He said: ''There is only one way of getting a thoroughly satisfactory engraving: the designer and the engraver must be one and the same person''.Noel Rooke, ''Woodcuts and Wood Engravings'' (London, Print Collectors' Club, 1926). He went on to apply the principles that he had learned from Johnston to wood engraving: ''Form should be expressed with tools which answer the helm with much sensitiveness''. He collaborated with J. H. Mason, who had made his reputation at the
Doves Press The Doves Press was a private press based in Hammersmith, London. During nearly seventeen years of operation, the Doves Press produced notable examples of twentieth-century typography. A distinguishing feature of its books was a specially-devis ...
. Mason was the head of Printing, and the two worked together on marrying text, type and illustration.Sylvia Backemeyer, ''Making their Mark: Art, Craft and Design at the Central School 1896-1966'' (London, Herbert Press, 2000), . Rooke was able to recommend his pupils, notably Vivien Gribble, as illustrators of books produced at the school. His was a major influence in reviving the practice of wood engraving in the twentieth century. Among his students were
Mabel Annesley Lady Mabel Marguerite Annesley ''HRUA'' (25 February 1881 – 19 June 1959) was a wood-engraver and watercolour painter. Her work is in many collections, including the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Gallery of Canada ...
,
John Farleigh John Farleigh (16 June 1900 – 30 March 1965), also known as Frederick William Charles Farleigh, was an English wood-engraver, noted for his illustrations of George Bernard Shaw's work '' The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for G ...
,
Robert Gibbings Robert John Gibbings (23 March 1889 – 19 January 1958) was an Irish artist and author who was most noted for his work as a wood engraver and sculptor, and for his books on travel and natural history.Martin J. Andrews, ''The Life and Work of R ...
, Vivien Gribble, Muriel Jackson, Clare Leighton, Margaret Pilkington, Herry Perry, Monica Poole. Less well known pupils include Mary Berridge, John R. Biggs, Cecily Englefield, Joan PilsburyAnne Stevens and
Justin Howes Justin Howes (1963–2005) was a British historian of printing and lettering. Howes was a curator of the Type Museum of London and wrote on the work of Edward Johnston and William Caslon; his book ''Johnston's Underground Type'' on the Johnston ...
, ''Noel Rooke 1881-1953'' (Oxford, Guise Society, 1984).
and Hilda M. Quick.


His wood engravings and other illustrations

In 1920 Rooke helped to found the
Society of Wood Engravers The Society of Wood Engravers (SWE) is a UK-based artists’ exhibiting society, formed in 1920, one of its founder-members being Eric Gill. It was originally restricted to artist-engravers printing with oil-based inks in a press, distinct from ...
Joanna Selborne, ‘The Society of Wood Engravers: the early years’ in ''Craft History 1'' (1988), published by Combined Arts. and exhibited with the society from 1920 to 1933. In the same year he became an associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. As a result of his teaching, his own production was comparatively small - wood engraved, line drawn and watercolour illustrations, individual prints, posters and paintings, many of which reflect his passion for mountains. He described himself as "one who draws mountains and also climbs them". Margaret Pilkington remembers classes where Rooke dwelt on the dramatic contrasts of dark rock and snow-covered sunlit slopes, on the angularity of line and on the possibilities of abstraction presented by such scenes.David Blamires, Patricia Jaffé and Sarah Hyde, ''Margaret Pilkington 1891-1974'' (Buxton, Hermit Press, 1995), . He produced a double-panel wood engraving for Rupert Brooke's '' The Old Vicarage, Grantchester'' (1916), one of the first books, in this case a slim booklet, illustrated with modern wood engravings. His only other book with wood engravings was for the
Golden Cockerel Press The Golden Cockerel Press was an English fine press operating between 1920 and 1961. History The private press made handmade limited editions of classic works. The type was hand-set and the books were printed on handmade paper, and sometimes ...
, an edition of ''The Birth of Christ'' (1925). In 1922 he contributed two wood engravings to ''Contemporary English Woodcuts'', an anthology of wood engravings produced by Thomas Balston, a director at
Duckworth Duckworth may refer to: * Duckworth (surname), people with the surname ''Duckworth'' * Duckworth (''DuckTales''), fictional butler from the television series ''DuckTales'' * Duckworth Books, a British publishing house * , a frigate * Duckworth, W ...
and an enthusiast for the new style of wood engravings.
Campbell Dodgson Campbell Dodgson, CBE DLitt Hon RE (13 August 1867 – 11 July 1948) was a British art historian and museum curator. He was the Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum in 1912–32. Biography Student Campbell Dodgson was the eighth ...
, Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, wrote about him in his introduction to the book: "Mr. Rooke himself, represented by examples of his earlier and later woodcuts, has discovered a vigorous treatment of mountain forms". He produced colour plates for two books by
Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...
, '' An Inland Voyage'' (1908) and '' Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes'' (1909); and a
King Penguin The king penguin (''Aptenodytes patagonicus'') is the second largest species of penguin, smaller, but somewhat similar in appearance to the emperor penguin. There are two subspecies: ''A. p. patagonicus'' and ''A. p. halli''; ''patagonicus'' ...
book on ''Flowers of Marsh and Stream'' (1946). His interest in mountains comes across in one of his posters for the
London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...
, the Downs at
Betchworth Betchworth is a village and civil parish in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England. The village centre is on the north bank of the River Mole and south of the A25 road, almost east of Dorking and west of Reigate. London is north of the ...
, and in many of his paintings. VADS (the Visual Arts Data Service) offers quick access to reproductions of Rooke's work, and the Central School has an extensive holding of his wood engravings.Biographical details, and listings of work by Rooke held at the Central School
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An overview of his life and work

The final judgement on Rooke as a wood engraver goes to Douglas Percy Bliss, who wrote of Vivien Gribble and Rooke: ''If their work had more verve and vitality they would be among the best book -decorators of our time''.Douglas Percy Bliss, ''A History of Wood-Engraving'' (London, J.M. Dent, 1928). Rooke did not quite make the first division of wood engravers, but that is beside the point. He is a very important figure in the wood engraving revival, where his importance and legacy are based on his sustained influence on a wide range of engravers who carried his ideas out into the world and interpreted them in their own way.


Further reading

Rooke's own book on woodcuts and wood engravings gives an insight on his views and techniques. The books by GarrettAlbert Garrett, ''A History of British Wood Engraving'' (Tunbridge Wells, Midas Press, 1978), . and Hamilton give a further insight into Rooke as wood engraver, and the Backemeyer book into that extraordinary period at the Central School.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rooke, Noel British illustrators English wood engravers 1881 births 1953 deaths Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design Academics of the Central School of Art and Design Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art