Two gentlemen going a shooting, with a view of Creswell Crags

Two Gentlemen Going a Shooting with a View of Creswell Crags from 1767 by George Stubbs is one of several versions of this sporting subject set in the dramatic Derbyshire limestone gorge. Creswell Crags—a ravine on the Derbyshire-Nottinghamshire border whose limestone cliffs shelter caves that preserve evidence of Paleolithic occupation—provided Stubbs with an unusually geological and dramatically picturesque setting for his English sporting subjects. The two gentlemen, their guns, and their dogs are placed within the ravine landscape in a composition that gives equal emphasis to human activity and natural setting. The geological specificity of the crags identifies the painting with a particular location, reflecting the Romantic taste for specific, nameable landscape rather than generic countryside. The work is held at the National Museum in Warsaw.

The sporting scene balances figure and landscape painting, with Stubbs rendering the huntsmen, dogs, and geological setting with equal precision.