William Hodges and Dusky Bay

William Hodges Dusky Bay New Zealand April Fletcher Collection
Dusky Bay New Zealand (April 1773) by William Hodges was recently added to the Fletcher Collection, and is on display at Waikato Art Museum until 21 June 2015.

Mary Kisler, Senior Curator at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki and Kim Hill discuss work by the 18th century artist William Hodges, who was the artist on Captain Cook’s second visit to NZ during Saturday Morning with Kim Hill.

William Hodges painting Dusky Bay New Zealand, April 1773, which Mary Kisler calls "a little treasure", started with a quick pencil sketch, which was then painted over in oil.

Following her recent research into the painting, Mary Kisler believes this might be the first oil painting of a prominent figure in New Zealand. All the contemporary texts assume the figures in the boats in the foreground of the painting to be Maori, but in the detail (available below) you can see they are sailors. Mary Kisler proposes that the figure standing in the foremost boat could be the Resolution’s third lieutenant, Richard Pickersgill.

Read about and view a film made about Pickersgill Harbour.

William Hodges, The Resolution passing a Tabular Iceberg, 1773-4, (watercolour) Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney

William Hodges, Impressions of Dusky Bay, 1773, Art Gallery of New South Wales

William Hodges, Dusky Bay New Zealand, April 1773, (oil on panel, 142 x 175 mm) Fletcher Collection, Auckland (on display at Waikato Art Museum until 21 June 2015)