The  AHA!  Event  of  the  Month

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The Deer’s Four Times of Day. 4-sheet set. Etching + engraving. Between 1743/44, probably rather in the late 50s, + Oct. 1763. Inscribed: J. E. Ridinger Pictor ac Sculptor Augustan. (1) and J. E. Ridinger fec. (2-4) resp. + characterization of each scenery above of the oval image the corners of which hatched out. 34.2-34.5 x 27.7-28.2 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 238-241; Artstock Catalogue Weigel 16545

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

+ part XXVIII, Ridinger 19 A; Nagler 26; Helbing XXXIV (J. E. + M. E. Ridinger, 1900), 500 ff. with pl. IV in only later impression; Schwerdt III, 138. – No copy in the Coppenrath Collection (1889/90) and in Rosenthal’s offer 126 (Joh. El. Ridinger, 1940, 444 items).

Quite uniform, but cleaned impressions of the first edition with 2 cm wide margin around, after a good decade available here again for the first time. – Plates 3 + 4 with a weak and (4) a little stronger box pleat resp. in the middle of the left white margin.

For the brocket the drawing Weigel, 1869, no. 133 – “A Languishing Stag standing on a Rock Piece”, black chalk heightened with white, on blue paper – should have been used as copy, inscribed by Ridinger with “in silva Nymphenburg (Munich) , ad vivum delineavit J. E. Ridinger 1738”. – As a whole the composition should stand in connection with the oil given to Johann Elias in the 1978 exposition “(Hunting Formerly and Today)” of the Lower Austrian State Museum at Marchegg Castle (no. 129, 44.5 x 37 cm, for the pendant see the noon plate) described as “… shows a rocky landscape with stags and hinds”.

With the dedication – the one and only own within the about 1600 sheets of the graphic œuvre! – to the artistically all-round diplomat Christian Ludwig von Hagedorn (Hamburg 1712 – Dresden 1780), brother of the poet and since late 1763 chairman of the Dresden Academy, then, in 1764, chairman of all cultural institutions in Dresden, here in his position of Saxon Legation Councillor of August III (Elector Friedrich August II of Saxony), King of Poland:

“ CHRJSTJANO  LVDOVJCO  AB  HAGEDORN

Potentiff. Poloniae Regis a Consiliis Legationum / Viro et avitae Nobilitatis Splendore / et artis graphicæ usu, cultu, amore / inter graviora negotia Spectabili D. D. D. ”

The dedication giving together the timing (hereto see additionally to the the evening-plate below) for the setting-up of the suite. In 1735 entered upon Saxon electoral service Hagedorn was promoted Legation Councillor in 1743/44 (Privy in 1763). Because the successor of August III, Elector Friedrich Christian (Oct.-Dec. 1763) did not take over the kingship, too, the creation of the set lies before his time. And in such a way before that of Hagedorn’s as highest cultural administrator, too. Regarding the motive for Ridinger’s distinguishing unique dedication there is still no knowledge here.

“ For midday rest a capital stag is standing, frontally to the beholder, in the shadow of a strong tree of a forest. Beside a lying stately ten-point one licking his back and a smaller further one, both resting. ”

The pendant to the oil in Marchegg mentioned above to the morning plate described in the catalog per no. 128 as following :

“ … represents a group of three stags assembled under a mighty tree. Two deers have lain down on the ground, the third one stands almost frontally against the onlooker. In the foreground a watercourse, in the background dense wood. ”

“ The main figure, a vigorous 12-point one (one of the two marks of the ridinger gallery niemeyer), has a resting hind alongside of him and a brocket (perhaps the son) behind him. All three vivaciously for they are night-animals. ”

Under leaving out of the standing second hind it is the right foreground group in reverse from Thienemann 293

“(Anno 1736. drawn from nature in the forest near Stahrenberg [near Munich])”,

which was transferred to copper – “J. El. Ridinger ad viv. del. et fec.” – in 1746/48, but surely hardly before 1747. This scenery shows the said four-group on a rock above a water assumed as the bay of a lake and together at the foot of a rock projecting into the subject. Beyond at the edge of the forest another capital one with four-headed seraglio.

The Indian ink preparatory drawing “Deer Herd at the Bank” of the Coppenrath collection inscribed

“(Drawn  from  nature  near  Starenberg  on the  Lake  [near  Munich])”

(part II, 1889, no. 1918, “For Th. 293”) evidently belonging to could be, however, identical with that one inscribed with the same words in Weigel, 1869, no. 130, and by this as belonging to Th. 241, see the following scenery.

Among the changes of details of an oil of the complete composition Th. 293 the situation of the water below of the right foreground group proves to be remarkable as, in contrast to the copper, illustrating clearly a flowing off.

“ It’s moonlight at rutting season. A 16-point rutting stag, belling pitifully, surrounded by seven pieces game, an imposing seraglio, which are about to go to water (and that clearly that of a large lake). At the bank beyond another stag crying. ”

This group of eight exactly the situation of the afore-mentioned drawing Weigel 130:

“ A landscape with a river (sic!), in front a stag and (7) hinds going downwards from the rock to the river. Inscribed: Drawn from nature at Starenberg on the Lake (near Munich). With the painter’s name (this in Coppenrath above included per “Inscribed” as taken for granted), Indian ink and black chalk … ”

In respect of the number this group corresponds with that placed above of the water at the edge of the forest of Thienemann 293 whose capital one only doesn’t show 16 points. – Thematically by the way surely also belonging also to the undescribed drawing Weigel 169 “A woodland with a stag and ten standing and lying resp. hinds; a rutting stag beyond a river doesn’t dare to come near. On bluish paper, Indian ink, heightened with white, oblong roy. f.”.

With all that discussed above “The Four Times of Day” by this linked up for the present three of their sceneries with their local context for the first time,

And in each case from own local view. An earlier timing for the working of the Four Times of Day set on the late 40s, early 50s as could be deduced from this appears rather improbable as on the back of the printing-plate to the evening-sheet another though dismissed work has been found created inevitably before the Four Times of Day (“Die Hippokrene”) for which a time mark is thinkable ensuring to 1757/58

So Ridinger staid as evidenced by inscriptions in drawings/coppers in Starnberg (Weigel 130/Th. 293; Collection of Ridinger drawings at Wawra, 1890, no. 56 [“Stags on a Hill moving towards the Forest, inscribed Ad Vivum in Silva Starenbergensis Joh. El. Ridinger 1738”, chalk on blue paper, heightened with white, large fol.] in 1736 + 1738 , in  Nymphenburg  in 1731 (Th. 287, “in the Parc of Nymphenburg  towards  Stahrenberg …”) + in 1738 (Weigel 133/Th. 238), possibly still in 1734 (Th. 274) and perhaps/presumably in  Schleißheim  (near Munich ,too)  in 1736 (Th. 270) + 1738 (Wawra 55, “Stags in the Forest near Schleissheim. With the name of the master and … 1738 …”, chalk on blue paper, heightened with white).

Beyond their general belonging to the finest of the beautiful in such a way

Ridinger’s  “The  Deer’s  Four  Times  of  Day”

turn out to be

as  additionally  embedded  in  a  local  area  of  highest  degree .

And of an iconographical one, too. For

“ Stags at the water in mountainous landscape hinted on the famous psalm 42.1 ‚So like the deer thirsts for fresh water, so my soul strives after thee, Lord‘ and became to the cipher for the ‚anima christiana‘ ”

(Justus Müller-Hofstede on the occasion of the 1985 Cologne Savery exhibition).

Offer no. 14,656

– – –  The  Same
Ref. no. 14,989 / in stock – not catalogued / request description & offer

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). A Herd of Red Deer in Moonlight (“Drawn from Nature near Starnberg on the Lake [near Munich]”). Stag of 16 points with his seraglio of 7 deer at the water in rutting season, answering a rival on the opposite bank. Lithograph printed with green tone plate by Hermann Menzler printed by A. Renaud for L. J. Heymann in Berlin. (1863-65.) Inscribed: Gez. v. J. E. Ridinger, lith. v. H. Mezler (sic!) etc., otherwise in German as above. 32.7 x 23.1 cm.

(Joh. El. Ridinger’s Hunting Album) II/9. – Comp. Thienemann 241. – From the “(Album of Interesting Hunt and Group Pictures)” carried as 2^nd part. – The whole rare set almost unknown to literature and comprising 80 sheets plus a recently discovered illustrated title of far larger image size (47.5 x 36 cm), though practically to be completed just peu à peu. In the picture effect corresponding to that of the aquatint technique not used by Ridinger anymore. – On strong paper with the wide margins adjusted to the sheet size (62 x 47 cm) of the illustrated title. – Tiny tear in the left lateral margin backed acid-freely.

with only minor deviations in the accessories compared with Ridinger, but with a completely independent sky reflecting a beautiful night instead of the dramatics of the original. And instead of the oval size there in rectangle here. By this thus a

very  interesting  collection  enrichment  worth  acquiring .

Offer no. 13,110 / EUR  404. / Export price EUR  384. (c. US$ 620.) + shipping

“ Thank you very much for your prompt and very cooperative handling of this order. I very much look forward to seeing the map ”

(Mr. D. R.-H., January 26, 2005)