Two Gentlemen Shooting

ca. 1769

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

Under the warm midday sun, the men and dogs have hit their stride. The pointers have flushed a bird, a shot rings out, and a partridge plummets to earth, feet in the air. The sport of bird hunting in eighteenth-century England changed from trapping birds with grain and nets to shooting them with a muzzle-loading gun while they were on the wing. Thus, in Stubbs’s day, “shooting flying” would have challenged fowlers, who needed a steady aim and an awareness of nature to bring in their modest catch.

Artwork Details

Overview

Title: Two Gentlemen Shooting
Artist: George Stubbs (British, Liverpool 1724–1806 London)
Date: ca. 1769
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 39 × 49 in. (99.1 × 124.5 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Yale Center for British Art, Given by Paul Mellon in memory of his friend James Cox Brady, Yale College, Class of 1929
Curatorial Department: European Paintings