William Hodges (1744 - 1797)

William Hodges was born in London, the only son of Ann and Charles Hodges, a blacksmith of St. James’s Market London. They encouraged their son’s talent for drawing and placed him in William Shipley’s drawing school at Castle Court in the Strand. Joining Richard Wilson as an apprentice in 1758, he was required to assist his master ‘in dead colouring and the forwarding of pictures’. A short period of study under Wilson and Cipriani at the Duke of Richmond’s Gallery developed his style for classical composition. He was appointed artist on the Resolution and left Plymouth on 13 July 1772 and returned on 29 July 1775.