Over the past two centuries few field sports have changed as much as game shooting, particularly in recent years. However, although the development of the sporting gun had the greatest influence on game shooting during the 19th century, in the 20th century it has been not so much the weapons that have changed but more the attitude of those who use them - known also, in our sometimes ill-defined English language, as sporting "guns". Most early paintings of shooting, often portraits of proud sportsmen armed with flintlocks and with spaniels at heel, were completed during the first half of the...