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
Thomas de Rokeby Thomas de Rokeby Sir Thomas de Rokeby was a 15th-century English soldier, Knight of the Shire and High Sheriff of Yorkshire. He was born into a well-known north Yorkshire family with a seat at Mortham on the banks of the Tees. An earlier Thomas de Rokeby who died in 1356 had been Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; he was probably a brother of the younger Thomas' great-grandfather. In 1405 he served a short term as High Sheriff of Northumberland. In 1406 he was then called to Parliament as Knight of the Shire for Yorkshire and served as High Sheriff of Yorkshire