JAMES CLARKE HOOK (BRITISH, 1819-1907) Reading the Ship Boys Letter signed and dated `J C Hook 1857` (lower right) oil on canvas 80 x 60cm Provenance Thomas Agnew & Sons, Old Bond Street, London; Morgan & Brown Fine Art Dealers, Collingwood St. Newcastle upon Tyne; Private collection, UK Exhibited London, Royal Academy, 1857, no.545 (as `The Ship Boy`s Letter`) James Clarke Hook was born in London and trained at the Royal Academy before furthering his studies in Italy, Paris and Switzerland under a travelling studentship.  The navy was a defining aspect of British identity in the mid-19th century and Hook explored this relationship with the sea, with numerous coastal subjects, but also its effect on domestic life.  The Ship Boy`s letter is a superb example of this, the narrative rendered with meticulous detail, down to the legible envelope addressed to `William Dibble`.  Work stops in the small-holding as the mother reads the letter, prompting a distant look from the father as he imagines where and what his son is experiencing.  Learning the ways of a ship took years meaning children often went to sea in their pre-teen years, in this case, leaving his two younger siblings at home.