William Hooker (botanical illustrator)

William Hooker (1779 – 1832) was a British illustrator of natural history.
Hooker studied under Franz Bauer (1758 – 1840), becoming the official artist of the Royal Horticultural Society, whose publications he illustrated. He also worked on the "Oriental Memoirs" of James Forbes and The Paradisus Londinensis with descriptions by Richard Anthony Salisbury (1761 – 1829). He also contributed illustrations for "Hooker's Finest Fruits" until his death in 1832.

William Hooker (no relation to Sir William) served as botanical artist to the Horticultural Society (now the Royal Horticultural Society) from 1812 until he retired in 1820. The present work includes a good selection of plates taken from his fruit paintings which, according to Blunt and Stearn, reveal him to have been "one of the greatest pomological artists of all time" (The Art of Botanical Illustration, p. 233).