Life

Active initially in Dublin, around 1747 he settled in London, managing a business at Battersea

Battersea

Battersea is an area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is an inner-city district of South London, situated on the south side of the River Thames, 2.9 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Battersea spans from Fairfield in the west to Queenstown in the east...

 for the enamelling of china in colours by a process which he had devised. The articles produced were ornamented with subjects chiefly from Homer

Homer

In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...

 and Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...

. After a period of success the business folded on the bankruptcy of its chief proprietor, Stephen Theodore Janssen, Lord Mayor of London

Lord Mayor of London

The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...

 for 1754-5.

Brooks stayed in London as an engraver and enameller of china. Some of his pupils of Brooks worked as engravers in mezzotint

Mezzotint

Mezzotint is a printmaking process of the intaglio family, technically a drypoint method. It was the first tonal method to be used, enabling half-tones to be produced without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple...

, among them James MacArdell

James MacArdell

James MacArdell was an Irish engraver of mezzotints.-Life:He was born in Cow Lane , Dublin, around 1729. He learnt mezzotint-engraving from John Brooks. When Brooks moved to London about 1746, MacArdell and other pupils followed. He opened a print shop at the Golden Head in Covent Garden, where in...

.

Works

Brooks' first known work was executed in line-engraving at Dublin in 1730. The earliest engraved portrait of Peg Woffington is that by Brooks, dated June 1740. Between 1741 and 1746 Brooks produced at Dublin mezzotinto portraits and engravings.

A catalogue of his works of Brooks was for the first time published by John Thomas Gilbert

John Thomas Gilbert

Sir John Thomas Gilbert was an Irish archivist, antiquarian and historian.-Life:John Thomas Gilbert was the second son of John Gilbert, an English Protestant, who was Portuguese consul in Dublin, and Marianne Gilbert, an Irish Catholic, daughter of Henry Costello. He was born in Jervis Street,...

, and additions were made by John Chaloner Smith

John Chaloner Smith

John Chaloner Smith was an Irish civil engineer and writer on British mezzotints.-Life:He was born in Dublin. His father was a proctor of the ecclesiastical courts, and married a granddaughter of Travers Hartley, M.P. for Dublin in the Irish parliament. Chaloner Smith was admitted to Trinity...

British Mezzotinto Portraits (1878).