Rokeby Venus connoisseurs steal a glance without drawing the said posterior into the company". The "Rokeby Venus" was long held to be one of Velázquez's final works. In 1951, it was found recorded in an inventory of 1 June 1651 from the collection of Gaspar Méndez de Haro, 7th Marquis of Carpio, a close associate of Philip IV of Spain. Haro was the great-nephew of Velázquez's first patron, the Count-Duke of Olivares, and a notorious libertine. According to the art historian Dawson Carr, Haro "loved paintings almost as much as he loved women", and "even his panegyrists lamented his excessive taste for
Rokeby Preparatory School school. A year later numbers had increased sufficiently to warrant a larger premises, so the school was moved to another house known as "Rokeby" (at no. 17, The Downs) in 1879 – a site now occupied by Hall School Wimbledon. When the Association of Preparatory Schools was founded in 1892 (a precursor to the current IAPS), Rokeby was one of the first members. In 1965 the then owner of the school stated his intent to close it, and a group of parents decided that it should be rescued. Rokeby Educational Trust Limited, a charity, was set up in 1966 to