Kōrero: Perceptions of the landscape

When he returned to England after James Cook’s second voyage, William Hodges, the artist on the Resolution, did a number of oil paintings of Dusky Bay. They were rather more romantic images than the sketches he made during the visit in April 1773. In this painting, Hodges presented the bay as wild and sublime. He focused on the dramatic sunset, framed by water, trees and distant peaks – with a noble Māori warrior added to heighten the exotic atmosphere.