HOOK, JAMES CLARKE (1819-1907), English painter, was born in London on Nov. 21, 1819. He worked for a year in the sculpture galleries of the British Museum, and in 1836 he was admitted a student of the Royal Academy, where he worked for three years. He exhibited for the first time in 1839. The travel ling studentship in painting was awarded to him for "Rizpah watching the Dead Sons of Saul" in 1846; and he went for three years to Italy. Hook passed through Paris, worked diligently for some time in the Louvre, traversed Switzerland, and, though he stayed only part of three years in Italy, gained much from studies of Titian, Tintoret, Carpaccio, Mansueti and other Venetians. On his return home with a series of Venetian subject pictures he became A.R.A. He then went to live in Surrey and in visited Clovelly. He turned from the anecdotic picture to a series of land and sea studies, some admirable examples of which are in the Tate gallery. Hook died at Churt, Surrey, on April 14, 1907. He had been R.A. since 1860.
See A. H. Palmer, "J. C. Hook, RA.," Portfolio (1888) ; F. G. Stephens, "J. C. Hook, Royal Academician: His Life and Work," Art Annual (1888) ; P. G. Hamerton, Etching and Etchers (1877) ; Allan J. Hook, Life of J. C. H., R.A., Pts. I., II., III. (priv. pr., 1929-32).