Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Hunting with Hounds. Set of 4 sheet. Etchings partly with drypoint by Johann Daniel Hertz I (1693 Augsburg 1754) for Jeremias Wolff there. 172(3). 36.5-37.2 x 49-50 cm and, one sheet, picturesize 34.5 x 48.7 cm resp.

Th. 9-12 (… which is “not in my possession , but I would like to possess it”, 1856 ! ); Schwarz 9-12 (1^st state added with 11a as 2^nd state) + vol. I, plate III; Schwerdt III (1928), 134 (3^rd state with Hertel’s address being unrecognized following Th. and Schwarz and in such a way described erroneously as proofs before the Schönborn dedication); L’Art Ancien, Ridinger list 14 [1939], 2 (Schwerdt’s aforesaid copy as  “State apparently undescribed”  and putting up for discussion Schwerdt’s “before” the dedication, additionally assuming Schwerdt’s too early date of “ca. 1723” for this state); K & F LXIV (1958), 167 as likewise 3^rd state and in such a manner possibly anew the Schwerdt copy. – The record at Wend, Ergänzungen zu den Œuvreverzeichnissen der Druckgrafik / Deutschsprachiges Schrifttum, Leipsic 1975, I, 1, p. 302, with reference to L’Art Ancien, see above.

Incomplete  in  Weigel, Art Stock Catalog, part XIII (1843), 12586 (as discharge print probably identical with that at Faber-Castell/Hamminger, see below); Coppenrath, part II, 1449 f. (only sheets 1 + 4 as trimmed on the edge of the subject and “added with small margin”, qualified as “extremely rare”, 1889, and probably identical with Helbings’s ones, see below); Reich auf Biehla 8 f., namely only sheets 3 + 4 – later probably with Faber-Castell, see below – as “very rare”, 1894, though “Of all [R. collections on the market] since long time there is none standing comparison even approximately with the present one in respect of completeness and quality … especially the rarities and undescribed sheets present in great number” (1266 sheets plus 470 doubles + 20 drawings); Helbing XXXIV (1900), Works by J. E. & M. E. Ridinger, 8 f. (anew the sheets 1 + 4 “trimmed to platemark” and obviously the ones formerly with Coppenrath, see above); Baillie-Grohmann (only sheets 2-4 in 1^st and [sheet 3] 2^nd state resp.) as item 3 in L’Art Ancien’s list above; Counts of Faber-Castell (1958) 18 + 20 (only sheets 1, 3 + 4, thereof sheet 1 as the discharge print of the Hamminger collection [1894], probably identical with that with Weigel while the two others should be the same formerly with Reich auf Biehla, see each above).

Not  in  the 1885 Silesian Ridinger collection at Boerner XXXIX (“of greatest richness … [many rarities]”) + in Rosenthal’s Ridinger list 126 of 1940 (444 items).

The  third  earliest  hunting  set  of  the  master ,

in its 1^st state dedicated to Franz Lothar von Schönborn (1655-1729), elector of Mayence and prince-bishop of Bamberg, whose plates Thienemann stated as lost and as not yet published by Ridinger himself not figuring in the 1824 list of Engelbrecht’s new editions. Here now the complete set in different states in respect of printing (Th. 12 only) and preservation as acceptable in cases of such great rarities. And last, but not least, of interest as documenting the history of the printing plates.

Departure  for  Hunting  (1)

Rich hunting party on horseback including a lady and numerous hounds. On the right in the middle distance six-in-hand hunting carriage. About 1750 the middle group of the party served china-painters as pattern for plates.

Inscribed: Ioh. Elias Ridinger, invenit et Pinxit. / Iohan(n) Daniel Hertz, Sculpsit., otherwise as following. – 3^rd state with the Hertel address “Iohann, Georg, Hertel, excud:” below right and the “1.” quite below right as state marks. – With six-liner in Latin (“Virg. Æn. IV. 130”) + German quatrain resp. as in this form typical for 2^nd + 3^rd states.

Centerfold and the somewhat creased and generally time-marked margin smoothed. In the latter several small tears acid-freely backed. – Below trimmed on platemark, but added for a harmonious optic, otherwise 2.3-3.5 cm wide-margined.

Between two wooded areas with view of a park-like hilly landscape the hunt comes to its end. Here Ridinger generally quotes

Savery’s  drawn  Tyrolese “Boslandschap  met  Jagers”

from at the latest 1609 (last digit illegible; 193 x 269 mm, see catalogue of the 1968/69 touring exhibition “Landschaptekeningen van Hollandse Meesters uit de XVIIe Eeuw … in het Institut Néerlandais te Parijs” no. 138 + pl. 1) which in the same year Aegidius Sadeler engraved in the same size (Hollstein’s Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings, and Woodcuts, vol. XXI, Amsterdam 1980, no. 225 as “Three Hunters and two Dogs near a Pool” within the 6-sheet set 225-230 “Six Mountainous Landscapes in Tyrol”, in Wurzbach 107 with only 5 sheets) while for the details of the hunt the painterly “Stag Hunt in the Wood” by Frans de Momper (1603-1660) is even nearer.

In Savery the game remains invisible, it is a deer-stalking by three hunters with two hounds concentrated on the left side. Common to both versions though the position of the gun-pointing hunter beneath the dead tree (in Savery a group of dead and living) which Ridinger develops to a pronounced vanitas symbol: the stag flees directly into his destruction. Not to be disregarded the dead branches stretching out at him, the huntsman expecting him.

Already in Momper – see the illustration in Beck, Künstler um Jan van Goyen, no. 823 – it is then the courcing from the right while the stag flees at the bank of the pool to the left from where two hounds come. Behind the dead tree reaching over the water no huntsman, at least not pointing, but a dog-leader just unleashing another hound. Such one with two hounds in front left in Ridinger, too. Possible that further repetitions exist which had inspired him.

About Savery’s Tyrol plates the catalogue says in general: “(By these Tyrolese drawings and also the prints, too, the grandiose Alp landscapes … are introduced into Netherlandish painting as a thankful motif making a deep impression on contemporaries and followers).”

Very fine impression of the 3^rd state – inscribed only with the Hertel address, otherwise as above, but with the “2.” +“Virg. Aen. XIII. (Th. XII) 749” in adequately fine copy on uncut strong laid paper of 47 x 63.8 cm sheet-size which means 5-7.5 cm wide margins! – In this on the left the four technical pinholes and upper right a repaired 4 cm tear ending 2 cm from the platemark.

Listed by Thienemann/Schwarz as sheet 4 and therefore renumbered by Hertel. – Very fine impression of the 3^rd state – inscribed like the foregoing one, but here with “3.” + “Virg. IV. Æneid. 156. III. Georg. 374” – in again adequately fine copy on strong laid paper, but with 50.6 x 70 cm sheet-size even wider margined (6-10.3 cm).

In the left margin a small tear repaired acid-freely. Here as also in the upper margin – in this additionally an added small loss outside right – a thin trace of a worm. A tiny worm-hole each inside the decoration around the lake, in the left white margin, and at the image-border upper right. The completely smoothed center-fold only noticeable in the white margins anymore.

In a virgin forest amidst of the hounds the first of the hunters delivers the death-blow to one of the bears. Furthermore a rich hunting party partly holding back the other hounds only with difficulty. From the resting-place of the bears above the rocks a second one observes the scene with rage.

Listed by Thienemann/Schwarz as sheet 4 and therefore renumbered by Hertel.

Shining magnificent impression of the 1^st state according to the inscription left+ right “Iohann Elias Ridinger invenit et Pinxit. / Cum Priv. S. C. Maj.” + “Iohann Daniel Hertz sculpsit Augustae Vindelicorum. 172(3.) / Ieremias Wolff excudit” and the Virgil verse only in Latin trimmed here underneath of the first two half lines. Otherwise above and on the sides trimmed on or just inside the image-border. Various smaller, in the upper corners larger tears repaired acid-freely and no more noticeable on the image-side than diverse traces of pleating and crease. In the right margin a 1 cm wide loss discreetly added.

The  magnificent , quite  complete  set  of  the  early  years

when the works had been etched/engraved and published still by others in Augsburg and which all are rare beyond words. This even in spite of repeated editions, which thus cannot be thought small enough at all.

The formation of the complex different (intermediate) states could be established here largely and may be questioned. Here only so much that for this set the Hertel state has been introduced into literature only by Schwerdt in 1928 and that the raised objection to the print quality of the later Hertel impressions of the 1722 set of hounds (Th. 551-557) by Thienemann (p. 4 of his 1^st addendum) has here validity for the Departure, only quite relatively for the Boar Hunt, and not at all, indeed, for the Stag Hunt of the same state.

And so with good reasons L’Art Ancien qualified the set in respect of Mr. Schwerdt’s 3^rd state copy they had taken over as

In such a manner after further 70 years then here + today irrespective of not totally quite uniform states and partly deviating condition

Offer no. 28,885  /  price on request

“ Pursuant to your last kind e-mail, I am placing my personal check in the amount of US$ … in the mail today. When it arrive, please send the print … It has been a pleasure dealing with you ”

(Mr. + Mrs. R. G. S., October 30, 2002)