Two Gentlemen Going a Shooting

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Artist: George Stubbs (British, 1724–1806)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 39 15/16 x 50 1/16 inches (101.4 x 127.2 cm)
Museum: Yale Center for British Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

In 1769–70, Thomas Bradford published a set of prints after the shooting series, in which the engravings (by William Woollett) were accompanied by verses. The story told in verse helps us to understand how Stubbs’s original paintings might have been seen and enjoyed by his contemporaries. The second painting of the series shows the huntsmen and their hounds on the trail.

Whereas they prepared to set out for the hunt in the “Grey-ey’d Morn’s uncertain light,” it is now midday, when “Bright Sol’s all [cheering] Beams illume the Day.” The description of light in these verses underlines the importance of the sense of sight, which is gradually enhanced as the day progresses. The sun is now almost overhead, allowing the huntsmen and their dogs to better spot their quarry. The verses also refer to the sense of smell: the hounds “shuff the Air, now scent the tainted ground.”

Text: Yale Center for British Art.