William Hodges (1744–1797) was an English painter. He was a member of James Cook's crew. He traveled to the Pacific Ocean and is known for his drawings and paintings of the places he visited on that voyage, including Table Bay, Tahiti, Easter Island, New Zealand, and Antarctica.
Hodges was born in London. He studied with William Shipley, and later in the studio of Richard Wilson, where he met Thomas Jones.
Between 1772 and 1775, Hodges accompanied James Cook to the Pacific as an expedition artist.
Many of his sketches and watercolors were adapted as engravings in the original published edition of Cook's voyage journals. These paintings depicted a stronger use of light and shadow than was typical in the European landscape tradition.
Contemporary art critics complained that his use of light and color contrasts gave his paintings a rough, unfinished appearance. Easter Island Man, 1776 (British Museum). Hodges also produced many valuable sketches of portraits of Pacific Islanders and voyage scenes involving members of the expedition. In 1778, under the patronage of Warren Hastings, Hodges traveled to India, one of the first professional British landscape painters to visit the country. He remained there for six years. In 1793, he published an illustrated book about his travels in India. He later traveled in Europe, including a visit to St. Petersburg in Russia.
In December 1794, Hodges opened an exhibition of twenty-five of his own works at Orme's Gallery, 14 Old Bond Street, London, which included two large paintings entitled The Effects of Peace and The Effects of War. In late January 1795, with Britain embroiled in the War of the First Coalition against Revolutionary France and emotions running high, the exhibition was visited by Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, the second son of King George III. The Duke was offended by the political nature of the paintings and ordered the exhibition closed; this royal censure effectively ended his career as a painter. Many of his works were later sold at auction, but they yielded only a negligible sum.
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