William Hodges was born in London in 1744 and learnt to draw at William Shipley’s school which he attended from 1755. He was quick to learn new techniques and came to the attention of the landscape painter Richard Wilson, who took him on as an assistant aged fourteen.
On leaving Wilson’s studio in 1765, Hodges joined the Incorporated Society of Artists of Great Britain where he exhibited for some years. Between 1772-5 he worked as draughtsman on Captain James Cook’s second voyage to the Pacific, making sketches and paintings of the islands and indigenous peoples. On his return to England, Hodges supervised the engraving of these works as illustrations for Cook’s official account of the voyage, published in 1779. He was also employed by the Admiralty for a further two years after arriving back from the Pacific, commissioned to undertake large-scale paintings based on the voyage, some of which he exhibited at the Royal Academy.
In 1779, Hodges travelled to India where he remained for six years. During this time he travelled widely and recorded landscape scenes and architectural sites of interest. Hodges produced several volumes of prints based on his time in India, which were published in the 1780s and 1790 and circulated widely, shaping British perceptions of India at this time.
Hodges’ years abroad were very lucrative for him, and in 1784 he was able to establish his own studio in the fashionable district of Mayfair in London. In 1785, he married Ann Mary Carr, a pianist, with whom he had five children. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1786 and became a full Member in 1789, exhibiting until 1794, just a few years before his death.