Michael Angelo Rooker (1746 1801 - )

Michael Angelo Rooker (1746 –1801) was an English oil and watercolour painter of architecture and landscapes, illustrator and engraver. He was the son of the artist Edward Rooker and Elizabeth Coatham and taught engraving by his father and drawing by Paul Sandby at the St. Martin’s Lane school in London and at the Royal Academy Schools. It was Sandby who called him Michael “Angelo” Rooker in jest, but the name stuck. For a long time he was chief scene-painter at the Haymarket Theatre in London, and appeared in the playbills as Signer Rookerini; but a few years before his death he was discharged, in consequence, it is said, of his refusal to aid in paying the debts of Colman, the manager.