Rokeby Park
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Rokeby Park is a country house in the Palladian style in northern England. It is located close to the confluence of the River Tees and River Greta, close to Greta Bridge in what is now County Durham. It was historically located in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Locally, Rokeby is pronounced "rookbie".
It is the private home of Sir Andrew Morritt but is open to the public on Monday and Tuesday afternoons between May Bank Holiday and August Bank Holiday.
The house is well known as the original English home of the painting The Toilet of Venus by Diego Velázquez, now known in English as The Rokeby Venus. The original now hangs in the National Gallery, London and a copy hangs in the saloon at Rokeby Park. Sir Walter Scott was a regular visitor to the house, and used it as the setting to his epic poem "Rokeby" in 1812.
The building is also of interest in its own right. Completed in 1735 (and known at the time as Rokeby Hall) by Sir Thomas Robinson, it is considered a fine example of the italianate Palladian style. Robinson owned it until 1769, when he sold it to J.S. Morritt, an ancestor of the current owner.
Much of the present interior was designed by John Carr. The house contains the collection of fine needlework pictures by Anne Morritt (1726-1797), the spinster sister of J.S. Morritt. There is also a rare surviving "print room", a room wallpapered with 18th century prints.
