Probably based on drawings Hodges made at Funchal on his return from India in the spring of 1785, for which see the panorama on three sheets 'View of Funchal from the Sea, Madeira' in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (47-246).
'Hodges's homeward passage from India on board the Worcester was broken by a short stop at Funchal, Madeira, to take supplies. Hodges probably made several drawings of the coastline during this time, and worked up this painting from those studies on his return to London. He had painted this harbour before, during or shortly after Cook's visit to the island in July 1772. ... In comparison with the smooth gradations of the earlier painting, the present picture is characterized by a heavy tonality that presents a much more dramatic view of this coastline.' (J. Bonehill, Ibid).
Its companion, the Cape view, was also engraved and published in 1787, and was published as a sepia aquatint in 1785, as probably was the Funchal view ('The view of Funchal was likewise probably issued in a sepia aquatint in 1785, and it was engraved by Morris in 1791 for The Literary Magazine and British Review, though it does not appear to have been included in the magazine.' I. C. Stuebe, The Life and Works of William Hodges, New York and London, 1979, p.323). Hodges had painted a similar view of Funchal from the Resolution on Cook's voyage, the view taken during their three-day stay in July 1772, albeit a smaller canvas and handled in a quite different manner. The latter was probably one of the three Madeira subjects that were sent back from the Cape on the outward voyage and exhibited at the Free Society of Artists in 1774 (no.384, A view of Fonchial in the island of Madeira').
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