[Waterfall in Dusky Bay with Maori canoe]

Waterfall in Dusky Bay with Maori canoe is an extremely rare painting by William Hodges, an English painter employed as draughtsman on Captain Cook’s second voyage to the Pacific aboard the Resolution from 1772-75. It is one of six oil paintings on panel from a private collection in the United Kingdom, descendants of an admiralty family associated with Cook’s voyages.

The painting depicts a scene in Dusky Sound, Tamatea, where Cook first made landfall in New Zealand on the 26 March 1773. There, Cook and his crew spent an idyllic two months repairing the Resolution, making astronomical observations, brewing beer, collecting specimens, replenishing provisions and exploring the environs. Meanwhile Hodges was sketching all he encountered – the landscape and the people. For on the 6 April 1773 contact was made with a family group of Southern Māori, possibly Kāti Mamoe (a migratory group of hunters and gatherers who periodically visited the Sounds). During encounters over a three-week period Hodges made several portraits of the group.

Waterfall in Dusky Bay with Maori canoe offers a quietly majestic scene that brings together Hodges’ observations of the landscape – the waterfall cascading from height through the bush on the right, the mountains receding into the distance, hazy with clouds and mist and the green depths of the waters – with his studies of Māori, seated here in a waka with large hoe, or paddles. Together, they combine to form a painting with a distinctly romantic mood.