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A head-and-shoulders portrait to left in captain's undress uniform of 1774–1783. The arrangement of his buttons in pairs shows the sitter to be a captain of under three years' seniority. Cook returned from his second Pacific voyage in the rank of Commander on 30 July 1775 and was promoted to Captain on 9 August. This portrait may therefore have been executed by Hodges during the return journey and the uniform finished back in England, or it may all have been done in England before Cook departed on his last voyage on 12 July 1776. Hodges had been the official artist appointed to record the places discovered on Cook's second voyage, undertaken in 'Resolution' and 'Adventure', 1772–1775. However, he was re-employed by the Admiralty immediately on his return, both to work up his sketches for publication in the voyage proceedings and to paint further pictures for them, tasks which occupied him until late 1778.
Although the painting relates to an engraving of 1777, made by James Basire as frontispiece to the second voyage proceedings, there are a number of differences between it and the print. The latter may therefore be after another version or a drawing, both unknown. Portraits by Hodges are rare and the majority from Cook's voyages are of Pacific people carried out in pencil or in red chalk. Of the three surviving oil portraits that were painted from life (two others formerly attributed, of American Indians, now being discounted), there is boldness and directness in treatment of the subject. Here, the artist has used light and shadow to present a strong portrait tinged with a hint of darkness. The painting's first owner was probably Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, Cook's friend and patron, since circumstantial evidence suggests that it was in his Buckinghamshire house by the time his son sold the property in 1826.
Title
Captain James Cook (1728–1779)
Date
1775–1776
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 76.2 x W 63.5 cm
Accession number
BHC4227
Work type
Painting
National Maritime Museum
Romney Road, Greenwich, London, Greater London SE10 9NF England
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