Rokeby Venus its central use of a mirror, and because it shows the body of Venus turned away from the observer of the painting. The "Rokeby Venus" is the only surviving female nude by Velázquez. Nudes were extremely rare in seventeenth-century Spanish art, which was policed actively by members of the Spanish Inquisition. Despite this, nudes by foreign artists were keenly collected by the court circle, and this painting was hung in the houses of Spanish courtiers until 1813, when it was brought to England to hang in Rokeby Park, Yorkshire. In 1906, the painting was purchased by National Art Collections Fund
Baron Rokeby a general in the British Army. The 6th Lord Rokeby had no surviving male issue and on his death in 1883 the barony and baronetcy became extinct. The Baronetcy, of Rokeby Park in the County of York, was created in the Baronetage of Great Britain on 2 March 1730 for the architect, collector and politician Thomas Robinson, with remainder, in default of male issue of his own, to his brothers and to his father’s second cousin Matthew Robinson, and the heirs male of their bodies. He was a descendant of William Robinson who acquired the Rokeby estate in the North