William Hodges RA was an English painter. He was a member of James Cook's second voyage to the Pacific Ocean, and is best known for the sketches and paintings of locations he visited on that voyage, including Table Bay, Tahiti, Easter Island, New Zealand, Dusky Sound and the Antarctic.
William Hodges, portrait by George Dance the Younger
Hodges' painting of HMS Resolution and HMS Adventure in Matavai Bay, Tahiti
Man of Easter Island, 1776 (British Museum)
A View of Cape Stephens in Cook's Straits New Zealand with Waterspout, 1776
Second voyage of James Cook
The second voyage of James Cook, from 1772 to 1775, commissioned by the British government with advice from the Royal Society, was designed to circumnavigate the globe as far south as possible to finally determine whether there was any great southern landmass, or Terra Australis. On his first voyage, Cook had demonstrated by circumnavigating New Zealand that it was not attached to a larger landmass to the south, and he charted almost the entire eastern coastline of Australia, yet Terra Australis was believed to lie further south. Alexander Dalrymple and others of the Royal Society still believed that this massive southern continent should exist. After a delay brought about by the botanist Joseph Banks' unreasonable demands, the ships Resolution and Adventure were fitted for the voyage and set sail for the Antarctic in July 1772.
Portrait of James Cook by William Hodges, who accompanied Cook on his second voyage
William Hodges, portrait by George Dance the Younger
Cook in Antarctica drawn by William Hodges
Painting of HMS Resolution and HMS Adventure in Matavai Bay, Tahiti, by William Hodges