Inscribed verso "Half Hour sketch by E . Burne Jones 1897 (June) done in my presence, for memorial Reredos to Christine Rossetti in Woburn Square Church. Commissioned by Rev. Glendinning Nash and executed by me at that time. T. M. Rooke, 1921" This important drawing when compared with the Reredos gives an revealing insight into how T.M. Rooke worked as a studio assistant.
inscribed; "deep blue/red book" Bronze green yellow book/ purple brown/ under crimson/ Deep blue purple brown/red book" (along the lower edge) and "Half Hour sketch by E. Burne-Jones 1897 (June) done in my presence, for memorial Reredos to Christina Rossetti in Woburn Square Church. Commissioned by Revd. Glendinning Nash and executed by me at the time. T.M. Rooke, 1921" (on reverse). A study, apparently made in half an hour, for a memorial to Christina Rossetti in Christ Church, Woburn Square, Bloomsbury. She died on 29 December 1894, and her funeral and memorial service were both held at the church, where she had worshipped for many years. the Revd. Glendinning Nash, who commissioned the memorial, was the incumbent. The memorial took the form of five painted panels representing Christ and four Evangelists, set in an architectural frame. The panels were executed from the present design by Burne-Jones's assistant T. M. Rooke, the master presumably being too busy to paint them himself. the memorial remained in Christ Church until the church was demolished in the 1960s. The panels survived and were included in the Christina Rossetti exhibition at the national Portrait Gallery in 1995. Christie's 1997