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A View in Dusky Bay, New Zealand; William Hodges; 1773; 1961/33
Name/Title
A View in Dusky Bay, New Zealand
A View in Dusky Bay, New Zealand
About this object
William Hodges was the artist on Captain James Cook's second voyage of exploration to the Pacific. Reaching New Zealand on 26 March 1773, the Resolution sailed into Dusky Sound where the crew recovered from their gruelling voyage and set up an observatory to help fix the position of New Zealand on the globe. George Forster, naturalist on board the Resolution, described the scene when they arrived: 'The smoothness of the water, illuminated by the setting sun, the different degrees of verdure, and the various notes of birds which resounded throughout the whole cove during this calm evening, greatly softened the rude, uncultivated outlines of this landscape'. Hodges made sketches of the Mäori family they encountered in the area and watercolours of the bay, with sharply outlined hills and turbulent skies. Cook was delighted and wrote that Hodges had 'delineated the face of the country with such judgement as will at once convey a better idea of it than can be expressed by words'. In this painting, produced after Hodges returned to London, Forster's rude, uncultivated landscape is transformed into a sublime vision: a solitary, noble Mäori figure silhouetted against a paradisial sunset. A more elaborate painting showing the same figure with his family, Cascade Cove, Dusky Bay, is at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. (from The Guide, 2001)
William Hodges was the artist on Captain James Cook's second voyage of exploration to the Pacific. Reaching New Zealand on 26 March 1773, the Resolution sailed into Dusky Sound where the crew recovered from their gruelling voyage and set up an observatory to help fix the position of New Zealand on the globe. George Forster, naturalist on board the Resolution, described the scene when they arrived: 'The smoothness of the water, illuminated by the setting sun, the different degrees of verdure, and the various notes of birds which resounded throughout the whole cove during this calm evening, greatly softened the rude, uncultivated outlines of this landscape'. Hodges made sketches of the Mäori family they encountered in the area and watercolours of the bay, with sharply outlined hills and turbulent skies. Cook was delighted and wrote that Hodges had 'delineated the face of the country with such judgement as will at once convey a better idea of it than can be expressed by words'. In this painting, produced after Hodges returned to London, Forster's rude, uncultivated landscape is transformed into a sublime vision: a solitary, noble Mäori figure silhouetted against a paradisial sunset. A more elaborate painting showing the same figure with his family, Cascade Cove, Dusky Bay, is at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. (from The Guide, 2001)
Maker
William Hodges
William Hodges
Maker Role
Artist
Artist
Date Made
1773
1773
Medium and Materials
oil on panel
oil on panel
Measurements
660mm (26")
660mm (26")
Subject and Association Description
Maori, bays, bush, Taiaha, men, sunrises, sunsets, coastlines, Sublime, fantasy
Maori, bays, bush, Taiaha, men, sunrises, sunsets, coastlines, Sublime, fantasy
Credit Line
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, purchased 1961
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, purchased 1961
Object Type
Painting
Painting
Object number
1961/33
1961/33
