The  Gutting  of  the  Stag

Thoman(n) von Hagelstein, Ernst Philipp (1657 Augsburg 1726). The Earth / La Terra. After the return from the hunt. Rich scenery around the gutting of the stag at the well, done by the hunter himself, supported by a hand. Besides a fallow-deer, perhaps also a fox, in front a further groom sitting with two hounds while on the left a third one comes along with a pack of three and a fourth one takes care of the carriage. Further two hounds, the son and the housewife, buildings, and landscape complete the whole. Mezzotint printed in brown. Inscribed: 4 / E. Ph: Thoman exc(.), quatrain in German as below. Subject size 36.2 x 48.5 cm.

THE FOUR ELEMENTS IV. – Only the title in German-Latin parallel text. – Trimmed to the edge of the image. Unobtrusive 3 x 1.5 cm tear-off in the left image margin added and redrawn, likewise backed a tear-off at the lower right corner outside of the writing and tiny marginal tears. Some thin paper spots and pin-like fine holes, completely smoothened centre fold. The only quite slightly worn impression itself very beautiful. Not identified watermark.

“ On the back and plain earth , The stag lies there in its value. By the hunter it is gutted , The other meat one prepares for the banquet. ”

Descending from a patrician family in Lindau, of whom as the first one the grandfather, Jacob Ernst, stood out as painter of the Elsheim circle, already the father, David, died as councillor of the board of Augsburg, while the son David Ernst, artistically just an excellent dilettante, raised to senator there, further artist-sons stayed there or turned to Stockholm and Dresden resp. A Hieronymus (brother?) “educated himself (as architect) under the famous Elias Holl and took part in his building of the city hall at Augsburg” (on the family in general Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie XXXVIII, 65 f.).

“ In the later time of his life (Ernst Philipp) engaged in the mezzotint manner, and had but One predecessor in this in Augsburg ”

(Nagler, who mentions animal and hunting pieces, according to ADB in just this manner, only after remarks by the younger Paul von Stetten, 1731-1808, but himself found “none of these specified”).

The  rarity  of  Thomann’s  animal  pieces  thus  proven  by  old

corresponds to his printed work in general, of which already in the middle of the 19^th century there were  but  1  sheet  each  by Ernst Philipp (the portrait Rauner as the single one known to Nagler, too) and the son Tobias Heinrich (marten, robbing a dove’s nest) resp. among the more than 20,000 (sic!) prints within the first 28 parts of Weigel’s Art Stock Catalogue (1838/57; nos. 6211 + 19,715). Also Thieme-Becker (1939) did not get beyond Nagler’s knowledge of 1848. But Schwerdt III (1928), 170 f. lists of the first two hunting sets in mezzotint of 4 sheets each from the Baillie-Grohman Collection and of the latter, 171 f., 9 mezzotints and 4 engraved works, equally dedicated to hunting, partly printed in blue, among these sets of four (1 each in mezzotint from B.-G’s. property and engraved resp.) and two sheets. The engraved 4-sheet one as set of the seasons. Thus the sheet here would be  the  first  reference  beyond possible special literature to the set of the elements supposedly dedicated to the hunt throughout. It is with all the utensils shown

as  instructive  as  in  the  pictorial  density  of  quite  its  own  charm .

Offer no. 12,434 / EUR  1176. / export price EUR  1117. (c. US$ 1446.) + shipping

„ Greetings from your Italian friend and Beethoven collector … Please inform me … “

(Sign. L. B., December 10, 2005)

The  Cream  of  the  Day