Pic: Johann Heinrich Tischbein II (1742 – 1808), "A Hunting Dog Stalking," 1773, etching, 5 x 6 1/4 inches (plate or block), 6 3/4 x 8 inches (sheet), Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston, 2019.9. Image courtesy of Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston. Photograph © The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Stark Museum of Art special exhibition, A Noble Pastime: Hunting Pictures

(ORANGE, TX) – The Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas, has on view the special exhibition A Noble Pastime: Hunting Pictures from the Collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, October 7, 2022 – April 8, 2023.

This exhibition features a subject that is familiar to Stark Museum attendees-that of hunting, but from a different perspective, the European historic view of hunting. The hunt has been a pervasive theme in western art and literature since the time of ancient Greece. The sport, often approaching the status of ritual, was generally heavily regulated and restricted to the nobility, with violators subject to strict penalties including, in some cases, death. A Noble Pastime includes sixteenth- to nineteenth-century representations of various aspects of the chase, such as hunting expeditions, game pieces, and portraits of hunters as well as animals. This exhibition seeks to illuminate various hunting methods, to underscore the role of the hunt as an exclusive pursuit in early-modern European culture, and to emphasize the use of hunting imagery as a conscious tool for fashioning one's self-identity.

A Noble Pastime: Hunting Pictures from the Collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation has fifty-six works of art including paintings, prints, illustrated rare books, and a decorative arts object. Artists include Jacques Callot, Willem van Aelst, George Stubbs, and many other French, Dutch, British, German, and Flemish artists. Portraits of hunting dogs and a hunter's horse show the importance of animals to the enjoyment of the hunting adventure and to the success of the hunt. Works in the exhibition feature falconry, the use of trained hawks to hunt prey. Educational additions to the exhibition include an audio tour, a scavenger hunt, and a reading area. The exhibition is a loan from the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston, Texas.

About the Stark Museum of Art

The Stark Museum of Art houses one of the nation's most significant collections of American Western art and is located in the heart of downtown historic Orange, Texas. Paintings, sculptures, prints, and rare books interpret the West from 19th-century frontier artists to the 20th century artistic colonies in New Mexico and focus on the stunning land, dramatic people, and diverse wildlife of the American West. The Museum features artists such as Frederic Remington, John James Audubon, John Mix Stanley, and Charles Marion Russell. Also featured is a significant collection of American Indian objects, including baskets, pottery, clothing and jewelry.



Stark Museum of Art is located at 712 Green Avenue in Orange, Texas, and is open Wednesday - Saturday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. For more information, visit Starkmuseum.org