William Hodges

William Hodges was a British artist and explorer in the 18th century, best known for his detailed landscape paintings. He accompanied Captain James Cook on his second Pacific voyage (1772–1775), capturing the diverse and often unfamiliar scenery, people, and cultures they encountered. Hodges’s artworks provided Europeans with valuable visual insights into distant lands like Tahiti, New Zealand, and Easter Island. His work combines artistic skill with documentary accuracy, making him an important figure in both art history and exploration, helping to expand Western knowledge of the wider world during the Age of Discovery.