Resolution Bay in the Marquesas.

Title

Resolution Bay in the Marquesas.

Description

View showing Resolution Bay in the Marquesas Islands with locals on their boats (pirogue). From Alexander Hogg's A New Authentic and Complete Collection of Voyages Round the World. Engraved by Benjamin Thomas, Pouncy. After William Hodges. Published by Lane & Thos Cadell.

c. 1777

Artist

Hodges (1744-1797)

William Hodges (1744- 1797 ) was an English painter. Hodges accompanied Captain James Cook aboard the Resolution on his second voyage to the South Seas, including Tahiti, the Tonga Islands, New Zealand, Easter Island and Antarctica. During his stay on board Hodges mainly made landscape sketches, but also some portraits of expedition members as well as special personalities of the visited islands. His landscape paintings usually also include elements showing the way of life of the people visited. His sketches were further worked on after his return to London, Hodges obtained employment for some time with the Admiralty, which allowed him to produce oil paintings from the sketches and to supervise the production of engravings of the same. Hodges' pictures illustrate as engravings in large quantity the later published travel descriptions of James Cook.

Historical Description

The Society Islands in French Polonesia. The archipelago is suspected to have been named by Captain James Cook during his first voyage in 1769, supposedly in honour of the Royal Society, the sponsor of the first British scientific survey of the islands. However, Cook himself stated in his journal that he called the islands Society as they lay contiguous to one another.