A View of the Island of Madeira

Image credit: Captain Cook Memorial Museum

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Notes

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William Hodges was the official artist appointed on Cook’s Second Voyage of discovery to the Pacific. Madeira was a favourite stopping place for ships on their outward voyage to the East, and the 'Resolution' and 'Adventure' took on fresh water, beef, wine, fruit and even 1,000 bunches of onions, which were thought to help combat scurvy. Hodges completed this painting five years later after the ships called at Madeira. After the Voyage, Hodges was keen to make his mark and this painting was one of several exhibited in London in 1777. There was however always some tension between the classicism favoured by the Royal Academy and the naturalism demanded when recording views and places never seen before. This painting is imaginative in composition rather than strictly topographical, and Hodges was quite capable of changing the viewpoint between an initial drawing and the painting derived from it for purely aesthetic reasons.

Captain Cook Memorial Museum

Whitby

Title

A View of the Island of Madeira

Date

1777

Medium

oil on wooden panel

Measurements

H 47 x W 64 cm (E)

Accession number

WHICC.10128

Acquisition method

purchased from John Mitchell & Son with the assistance of the National Art Collections Fund and the Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund, 2001

Work type

Painting

Normally on display at

Captain Cook Memorial Museum

Grape Lane, Whitby, North Yorkshire YO22 4BA England

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