The  AHA!  Event  of  the  Month

The pack leader defending the hare against three other greyhounds and a waterhound by a boulder. Washed brush drawing over pencil by Johann Elias Ridinger (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Inside the subject below left inscribed with pale pencil: Joh. Elias Ridinger inv. et del. 438-440 x 336 mm (subject size 426-429 x 336 mm).

The  pictorial  preparatory  drawing

in reverse to sheet 1 – Thienemann 105, illustrated in Blüchel, Die Jagd, II, p. 79 – of the “Four Seasons of the Hounds” supposed for the early 40s, furnished with marks of trace and, at the back, red chalk, on strong, but not heavy laid paper with watermark “IV” as known for the time and proven here for Ridinger, e. g., for his 1723 drawing “Alexander the Great at the Hyphasis 326” just as for two sheets of the set of the monkeys most likely published colored only by the sons as second edition.

Of best condition except for a pinhead-small hole and, predominantly at the back, seven marginal traces of former mounting in spots on a sheet removed only by now (on this by old hand in italics as inscription in the center “Coursing” and on the right “Ridinger”). In the center of the narrow white subfield of the drawing itself a “20.” in pencil as supposed inventory number of a former owner and therefore mark of origin of a more comprehensive collection of drawings.

The  also  by  its  size  marvelous  drawing

for the opening sheet of this wanted rich set, in the engraving explained by the quatrain

“ The Hares are catched many, At SPRING TIME /
Before when they offend in the seed field /
But when with highest rage, the hounds set on it /
So the protector has concern, that they do not tear it up. ”

The latter in the present reverse drawing therefore to the left, “the forelegs stretched out over the hare and grawlingly repulsing two other hounds, of which the one, a greyhound as well, lies with the front part in peculiar lurking position on the ground, the other, a waterhound, barking at him. Above of these on a boulder there are two other greyhounds who also have a little lust for the hare”.

Contrary to the etching the pack leader’s tip of the tail a little less formed and the waterhound’s left foreleg concealed under the belly. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 28,878  /  price on request

Young woman to the left at a balustrade, looking at the viewer. In her right a rose, the left in a flower basket on her lap. Followed by young and full-figured lady resp. before landscape scenery and gentleman at the fireside with tea and biscuits as

Four  Seasons  in  large  three-quarter  figure .

4 sheet. Mezzotints by or at Johann Elias Ridinger (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Inscribed: Ioh. Elias Ridinger excud(it). A. V., otherwise as following. 53.9-55.1 x 42.6-43.5 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 1193-1196. – Slightly reduced and somewhat reservedly composed repetition of the third (of five) set of the Four Seasons Th. 1181/84 – “The ideas taken from the works of (Hyacinthe) Rigaud (1659-1743) and other French portrait painters” (Th.), though as to the contents generally in the succession of antiquity and Middle Ages according to which the perception of nature by the elements + seasons had “an important part in the process of profanation of art in the 16^th century” (Robels, Frans Snyders, 1989, p. 25) – under renunciation of the verses, too. Here now sovereignly in the broad lower margin separated from the picture by a roll border the Latin-German titles in large typography.

Mounted by old at the corners on buff laid paper which is slightly browned at two/three outer margins. – The winter sheet with tiny margin at three sides, otherwise partially with such one or trimmed to the platemark.

The  excellent  copy  in  regard  to  printing  and  conservation

of a cultivated collection of perfectly bright chiaroscuro in all parts. And in such a manner of quite extraordinary rarity not only on the market as quoted above, but in general, too. Already in 1675 the expert von Sandrart numbered “clean prints” of the velvety mezzotint manner at only c. “50 or 60” (!). “Soon after (the picture) grinds off for it not goes deeply into the copper.” Correspondingly then Thienemann in 1856 :

“ The  mezzotints  are  almost  not  to  be  acquired  on  the  market  anymore  …
and  the  by  far  larger  part  (of  them)  …
(I  have)  only  found  (in  the  printroom)  at  Dresden. ”

Besides Thienemann’s supposedly copy in Dresden and that of Gutmann (Schwarz, 1910) for the set here one with Rosenthal (1940) and that of Count Faber-Castell (1958) can be proven. The previous version 1181/84 was missing with the latter two, but Helbing (1900, “Marvelous mezzotints. Extremely rare.”) had it in impressions before the letter as complete set and with the letter in three single sheet. – Thus here + now

See the complete description.
Offer no. 28,413  /  price on request

Surrounded by his hounds looking from a low elevation down to his bag of roebuck, stag, hare, just as numerous winged game like wood grouse and hazel-hen as well as predatory small game. Followed through the further year by the attentive + determined, courageous + brave, and finally persistent + bold hunter as the

“ Four  Seasons  of  the  Hunter ”.

4 sheet. Etchings with engraving in oval with hatching of the corners by Martin Elias (1730 Augsburg 1780) after Johann Elias Ridinger (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Inscribed: Joh. El. Ridinger inv. del. et exc. Aug. Vind. / Mart. Elias Ridinger sculps. (l. 3: sculpsit), otherwise in German with sheet title + quatrain in German-Latin parallel text. 37.3-37.5 x 27.5 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 109-112; Weigel 16545

( “ old  now  only  rarely  found  impressions ”, 1847 ! )

+ XXVIII, Ridinger, 11 A; Coppenrath Collection II, 1459 (“Fine set, rare”, 1889); Helbing XXXIV, 251; Schwerdt III, 136 (“An attractive set”); Rosenthal 126, 26 (sheet 4 only); Catalogue Darmstadt, 1999, V.7 (sheet 1 only, with ills.). – Not in Nagler (1843) nor in Schoeller Collection (1921) + Catalogue Kielce (1997).

as the one quoted by Helbing one hundred years ago. With a sheet size of 50.7 x 35 cm (Schwerdt: 53.7 x 36 cm). – Sheets 1 + 3 with typographic watermark. – The technical pinholes in the upper white outer margin closed.

With intervals of 13 an 14 years resp. the set is available here apart now for the third time. On which occasion it should be noted in view of their being transferred to copper by Johann Elias’ eldest, Martin Elias, that his bearing for the Ridinger oeuvre goes noticeably beyond a just engaged co-working as engraver not only according to findings here. Already as 30-years-old he almost acted as a spiritus rector behind the scene. Who ensured that sets were not stopped prematurely or published posthumously. And as Wolf Stubbe (Joh. El. Ridinger, Hamburg/Berlin 1966, pp. 16 f. + plt. 34), going into medias res, praises Th. 722, The Wild Bison and the Crocodile, from the Fights of Killing Animals in regard of the treatment of light as an artistic zenith of the late work he also pays, since judging on the basis of its engraving, not the drawing, reverence to Martin Elias as the etcher/engraver of that work. An aspect that increasingly elucidates the co-operation of the Ridingers and underscores the quality of the present set on its technical side, too. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 14,657  /  price on request

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). S. Caecilia. Three-quarter figure of Saint Cecilia, looking at the beholder, in rich garment and turban-like head-dress, here

playing  the  harp

as rarer attribute, adorned with martyr’s palm leaf + the head of an angel. Beside her a nearly unclothed sympathetic young angel reading the notes. Mezzotint engraving. Inscribed: Ioh. El. Ridinger excud. A. V., otherwise as before inside of a large shell-cartouche in the lower margin. 51.2 x 38.8 cm.

Stillfried (1876) 1420. – Not in Thienemann (1856) and with the exception of the Counts of Faber-Castell (1958) here not provable elsewhere, too. – Size variant unknown to Schwarz (1910) who lists per same number 1420 Baron Gutmann’s copy in the size of 61.5 x 38.8 cm thinking Count Stillfried’s specification could be incorrect. – Per corner mounting by old hand laid on especially wide-margined heavy hand-made paper. – Partly with a little margin, otherwise trimmed to platemark.

of a cultivated collection perfectly brighting in all parts. And in such a manner of quite extraordinary rarity not only on the market as quoted above, and 1856 by Thienemann

See the complete description.
Offer no. 28,402 / EUR  1738. / Export price EUR  1651. (c. US$ 2665.) + shipping

Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). The Times of Day (and the Year). Set of 4 sheet. Engravings by Thomas Cook (c. 1744 – London 1818). Inscribed: Hogarth pinx^t. / (T.) Cook sculp^(t). / Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme Jan^(y). 1^st./March 2^nd./July 1^st. 1807., otherwise with the respective time of the day. Picture size 16.7-17.4 x 13.9-14.3 cm.

The  famous  set  of the Four Times of Day including, though backwards, the seasons of the year, here in Cook’s (“made himself a name as Hogarth engraver, too”, Thieme-Becker) smaller repetition. – Trimmed within the slightly foxing wide white platemarks.

The set conveys the impression the whole London activity exclusively takes place in restaurants , with eating , drinking , and amusement. And in fact : the action  has  a  real  background . Culminating in the in this regard especially abundant

Spring  night  after  May  29

that brought back monarchy – and with it Charles II. – See the complete description.
Offer no. 8,874 / EUR  245. (c. US$ 395.) + shipping

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The Cythera Lady (“Impudent but yet Gallant”). Coquettish grande dame in three-quarter figure to the right, draped as richly as sophisticatedly up to pear jewels and gown falling three-dimensionally mussel-shaped, dancing with the arms spread in deeply staggered landscape whereby the opened right downright reaches for the ripe grapes on the left as an arthistorical symbol of fertility following psalm 128,3. In the background a two-master lies under sails before the coast of a mountainous landscape. Mezzotint. Inscribed: I. El. Ridinger excud. A. V. 48.8 x 35.4 cm.

Schwarz 1471 + plate II, XXX. – Not in Thienemann (1856) + Stillfried (1876) and here besides the copies of von Gutmann (Schwarz, 1910) + Count Faber-Castell (1958) not provable elsewhere. – Mounted by old at the corners on especially wide-margined buff laid paper which is slightly browned at two outer margins. – Right with tiny papermargin, otherwise mostly trimmed to platemark. – Subtext in German-Latin. Till now its motto served as title due to not understanding the contents of the picture :

The, what literature overlooked till now,

of a cultivated collection of perfectly bright chiaroscuro in all parts. And in such a manner of quite extraordinary rarity not only on the market as quoted above, but already in 1856

not  even  found  in  the  Dresden  print  room

by Thienemann and then still remained unknown to count Stillfried!

Thematically  of  highest  charm

it is Ridinger’s autonomously treated recourse to that complex in the work of the contemporary of his early years that counts in its time and from then till today to the most admired paintings in art history, to

with the “Pilgrimage to the Isle of Cythera” (the Ionian island Cerigo as the lover’s isle of Greek mythology) of the Louvre as the primus inter pares by which Watteau reached his admission to the Académie on Saturday, August 28, 1717, “as painter of the ‘fête galante’” as the original title “Le pélerinage à l’isle de Cithère” was correctingly re-titled in the record of the session. It is

“ (t)he  work  that  unites  all  qualities  of  W.’s  art ”

(Jahn 1957). Of equal standing “The Embarkation to Cythera” in Berlin as the supposedly last Watteau acquisition by Frederick the Great (between 1752 and 1765) whose purchase from the Hohenzollern for 15 million marks in the past early 80s was then as spectacular as cheap from today’s point of view. Listed as replica only by literature for long “The differences between the two version (are) numerous”. Early predecessor of both is “The Isle of Cythera” from 1709, also purchased in the early 80s for the Städel in Frankfort/Main, “an upbeat … the first idea for the celebrated works in the Louvre and in Berlin”.

“ And so Watteau has wanted it (what explains the great success of his painting). The ‘Pilgrimage to the Isle of Cythera’, which was painted fast, but ripened slowly, represents an ambiguous work that gave and still gives rise to interpretations which might look contradictory, but in reality complement one another.

Its  extraordinary  fascination

for  the  Painters

(Turner, Monet), and the poets (Verlaine), the musicians (Debussy) and the writers (Proust), and in the farest sense for the public, cannot be explained else … ”

(François Moureau, Watteau in his Time, pp. 469 ff., in the Watteau Catalogue by Morgan Grasselli and Pierre Rosenberg to the 1984/85 touring exhibition Washington – Paris – Berlin). – An extensive appreciation of the Cythera complex and its connecting lines in Ridinger’s work within the available comprehensive description of the “Cythera Lady”.
Offer no. 28,408  /  price on request

“ I am so impressed by your (riding) website and the collections you offer!

I know this is a great thing to ask of you, I am hoping that in our mutual respect of equestrian heritage you will oblige … ”

(Mrs. B. F., October 24, 2007)