2-913-575 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Time of the Persecution of the Christian Reformers in Paris, in 1559" - painted by J.C. Hook, A.R.A. - from the Exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1854. 'We are not sure...that religious animosities are altogether fitting subjects for the pencil of the painter...Mr. Hook, in his well-told story, has represented the Roman Catholics of France in 1559 triumphant in the streets, singing canticles before images, inviting all who passed by to join in their devotion, and insulting and beating those whose belief led them to a contrary worship. Observe the insult that is offered to the Christian Reformer in the very centre of the picture. How well the incident is told! Mark the triumph of the priest and the seemly forbearance of the persecuted. Mr. Hook has seldom been more successful in catching and rendering contrasts of this pictorial, though...in some respects, this disagreeable nature'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.