William Mathew Hodgkins is today best known as the father of Frances Hodgkins. Another daughter, Isabel Field, was also an artist. His own works was always influenced by J. W. M. Turner and highly atmospheric in terms of the treatment of colour and light effects. The 1890s saw the arrival of different styles of painting brought by James McLauchlan Nairn, Girolamo Nerli, and Petrus van der Velden, all of whom Hodgkins welcomed to Ōtepoti, his home for many years.
