Rokeby Venus created National Art Collections Fund, its first campaigning triumph. King Edward VII greatly admired the painting, and anonymously provided £8,000 (£ in 2019) towards its purchase, and became Patron of the Fund thereafter. In part because he was overlooked until the mid-19th century, Velázquez found no followers and was not widely imitated. In particular, his visual and structural innovations in this portrayal of Venus were not developed by other artists until recently, largely owing to the censorship of the work. The painting remained in a series of private rooms in private collections until it was exhibited in 1857 at the
Rokeby Preparatory School Headmaster Jason Peck revamped the uniform by replacing the black in the official school colours with blue in an attempt to bring the school more in line with his views on progressive education. He also scrapped the separate junior school uniform. To mark the occasion of the Rokeby Centenary, in 1977, Ian Gregory (who taught Latin at the time) composed the Rokeby School song, based loosely on the "Carmen Saeculare" of Horace, and put to music by Paul Sherrell, then Head of Music. A version of the song follows first in Latin and then in English: <poem>In urbe iuxta fluvium