DeutschA Thematical Primer Detonation
Acted as a Model for the “Blue Rider” Franz Marc
Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The Weasels. Two in front of underwood and rocky scenery, one coming from behind a stone, the other on top of that. Etching with engraving. (1740.) Inscribed: J. E. R. f., otherwise in German as before. 19.1 x 15.6 cm.
Sheet 89 (Thienemann + Schwarz 479) of the “Design of Several Animals” (“These plates are very much wanted and often copied”, Th. 1856).
But thematically set in context here for the first time
to Franz Marc’s painting “Playing Weasels”
of 1911, Hoberg-Janssen 144 with illustration.
As inspired by Ridinger known hitherto only Marc’s woodcut “Riding School after Ridinger” of 1913 (Lankheit 839) as detail interpretation of the mounted rider as background figure of the third sheet, Th. 608, of the 1722 Riding School annotated by literature with
“ Illuminatingly that Marc , very well versed in knowledge of art history ,
turns to as models just these masters of the presentation of the horse
(Delacroix and Ridinger)
of the 19th and 18th centuries resp. ”
(Christian von Holst, Franz Marc – Pferde, 2003, pp. 166 ff. inside of [‘… the Kick of my Horses’]).
For already his oil “Playing Weasels” worked two years before reveals the knowledge of quite several Ridinger coppers from entirely different sets. Marc shows two weasels, of which the one, bowed over a bough, looks down upon the other sitting in raised attitude. The trees besides of an eccentricity as in this ostensible density used by him only still on the two “Acts under Trees”, H.-J. 143, of the same year. For the thematic primer detonation stands the work here with the two playing ones, too, but both on the earth in completely different surroundings. The latter Marc splitted up. And took the attitude of the two animals from sheet 86 of the set, the two pine martens Th. 476. The young one of them, bowing over a low bough like at Marc and looking at the dam standing on the hind paws against the trunk, baiting with a captured bird. But the bizarre trees – and as such ones Sälzle characterized them expressly in the edition of the preparatory drawings for the following suite– as rather rarer for Ridinger, too, he took over from sheet 19 of the concurrent suite of the “Illustration of the Fair Game with the Respective Traces and Scents”, the “Scent of a Marten / Scent of the Weasel”, Th. 181 with the marten on the tree at the same attitude and a weasel on the ground shown, however, neutrally.
Thus Marc formulated his “Playing Weasels” just so by means of three Ridinger copies as the latter on his part his “The Amusement of the Shepherds” after Watteau, Thienemann-Stillfried 1397, composed from four models of the French. That finally the trees as more typical for Ridinger was not unfamiliar to Marc, too, shows the right group of trees of his forest picture “The Würm near Pipping” from 1902/03, H.-J. 15 with ills. By the way a lithograph of the same name has been preceded to the oil of his “Playing Weasels” in 1909/10.
But also the par force scenery on the watercolor “Ried Castle” worked one year later – Holst, ills. 11, p. 29 – stands for a further example of Marc’s occupation with Ridinger,
which in this plurality has not been seen till now .
Ref. no. 14,999 / in stock – not catalogued / request description & offer