in the Louvre, traversed Switzerland, and, though be stayed only part of three years in Italy, gained much from studies of Titian and other Venetians. The influence of these old masters dominated the future coloration of Hooke's pictures, and he applied the artistic lessons learned from his travels to the painting of romantic subjects and those English themes of land and sea which became his trademarks. A Dream of Ancient Venice (RA, 1848), Bayard of Brescia (R.A., 1849), Venice (BI, 1849) and other works, won him an Associateship of the Royal Academy in 1850, and he gained full membership in 1860. In 1850, he also became a member of the Etching Club. Genre paintings Soon after, he abandoned History Painting and turned his attention to genre depictions in rural landscapes like A Rest by the Wayside and A Few Minutes to Wait before Twelve o'clock (both exhibited 1854). Several visits to Clovelly in Devon prompted him to adopt coastal scenes as his main motif and showed the hardship and rewards of life by the sea. Some early examples are "A Signal on the Horizon" (1857), "A Widow's Son going to Sea," "The Ship-boy's Letter," "Children's Children are the Crown of Old Men," "A Coast-boy gathering Eggs," a scene at Lundy; "Luff, Boy!" (1859), "The Book, Stand Clear! O Well for the Fishermans Boy!" (1860), "Leaving Cornwall for the Whitby Fishing," and "Sea Urchins". He painted these types of scenes so frequently that his coastal paintings were soon dubbed "Hookscapes". In 1857, Hook left London to settle in rural Surrey around Godalming. In 1866 he built his country house "Silverbeck" near Churt where he lived for the rest of his life. He was a frequent traveller, however, and searched out picturesque coastal areas in Scotland, Wales, Devon and Cornwall, and also abroad in Brittany and the Netherlands. The more remote and unknown the place the better. There he painted en plein air but put the final touches to each picture back home. Hook continued to exhibit every year until 1902. He died at Silverbeck in 1907. Two of his sons were also artists: Allan James Hook (1853–1946), a marine painter, and Bryan Hook (1856–1925), an animal and bird painter. Works Artwork by Hook is held at the Tate Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts and Guildhall Art Gallery in London, and in Galleries in Manchester, Liverpool, Aberdeen etc. A chronology of his