Two Gentlemen Going a Shooting, with a View of Creswell Crags, Taken on the Spot
Date:
ca. 1767
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
40 x 50 inches (101.6 x 127 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Given by Paul Mellon in memory of his friend James Cox Brady, Yale College, Class of 1929
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1976.7.85
Gallery Label:
This is the first in a series of four paintings that depict episodes from a day’s sport, completed by George Stubbs between 1767 and 1770. The painter himself gave the pictures their titles, so we know that the setting is supposed to be near Creswell Crags, which are steep limestone formations found between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. Caves in the crags contain prehistoric human remains as well as hunting tools and weapons (Stubbs also featured the formations in his paintings of lions attacking horses). While the shooting series seems to contemplate the timelessness of the hunt, it might also be interpreted as a meditation on the passage of time itself. The first scene takes place at dawn, when the hunting party is preparing to embark. William Wildman, the wealthy wholesale butcher and sportsman who owned—and likely commissioned—the series, is probably one of the huntsmen depicted. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016