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.

Sponsored by the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston with additional support from Jon Rex Jones in memory of A.V. Jones Jr., and Nancy & Joe Foran in honor of Doris Miller and Don Fitzgibbons.