HOOK.
5S3
ter." He is the author also of a large volume entitled "Lamps, Pitchers, and Trumpets Lectures,*' on the vocation of the preacher, " Blind Amos," *' Bye-Path Mea- dow," besides editing two bulky volumes, "The World of Anec- dote," and "The World of ReH- gious Anecdote." More recently he has published a course of lec- tures on "The Villages of the Bible." He has been the biogra- pher of the distinguished Noncon- formist, the Eev. Thomas Binney. His latest prose works are an ela- borate exposition of the genius and philosophy of Thomas Oarlyle ;
- ' Oliver Cromwell : his life, times,
battle-fields, and contemporaries" (1882); and Scottish Characteris- tics" (1883). He has also pre- sented himself in verse as the author of "The Maid of Nurem- burg " and other voluntaries. Mr. Ho<5 is well known to his own denomination as a preacher, and the author of many published ser- mons, and has an extensive popu- larity as a lectxirer on subjects con- nected with general literature or social questions.
HOOK, James Clarke, R.A., was bom in London Nov. 21, 1819. His father, Mr. James Hook, was the Judge Arbitrator in the Mixed Commission Courts, Sierra Leone, and his mother was the second daughter of Dr. Adam Clarke, the biblical commentator. The future artist was entered as a student of the Royal Academy in 1836, and his progress from the outset was marked and encouraging. He took the first medals in the life and painting schools in 1842. He ob- tained the gold medal for historical painting in 1845, the subject being "The Finding of the Body of Harold." Up to this time Mr. Hook had chiefly confined himself to subjects from English history, and occasional portraits. In 1846 he obtained the travelling pension of the Royal Academy for three years, and in %he same year married
the third daughter of Mr. James Burton, solicitor, and went to Italy. After eighteen months' absence, he gave up half his pension, and re- turned to England. He now began painting subjects for Italian and French history and poetry, and occasionally from Scripture. Of this class may be mentioned the following, all exhibited at the Royal Academy: " Pamphilus re- lating his Story," a subject from Boccacio, 184* ; "The Song of Olden Time," 1845; "The Con- troversy between the Lady Jane Grey and Feckenham," 1846; " Bassanio commenting on the Caskets," a scene in the Merchant of Venice, 1847; "The Emperor Otho IV. and the Maid Gaulada," 1848; "The Chevalier Bayard wounded at Brescia," also, " Othel- lo's First Suspicion," and " Bianca Capello," 1849; "Escape of Fran- cesco Novello di Carrara and the Lady Taddea," and " A Dream of Venice" 1850. Mr. Hook was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1850, and attained the full honours of the Academy in 1860. He exhibited "The Rescue of the Brides of Venice," and "The Defeat of Shylock," 1851; "The Story of Torello," from Boccacio, and " OtheUo's Description of Des- demona," 1852; "The Chevalier Bayard knighting the Son of the Duke of Bourbon," and " Isabella of Castille and the Idle Nuns," 1853; "Incidents in the Persecu- tion of the Protestants in Piiris," 1854; and "Gratitude of the Mother of Moses for the Safety of her Child," 1855. About this period Mr. Hook returned to his first in- clination, and devoted himself chiefly to pastoral and modern sub- jects. Of examples in his later style we may instance the following : " The Birthplace of the Stream- let," " The Market Morning," and "The Shepherd's Boy," 1865; "The Brambles in the Way," "The Passing Cloud," "Welcome, Bonny Boat!" and "The Fisherman's
