Tischbein II, Johann Heinrich (Haina, Hesse, 1742 – Cassel 1808). (Collection of One Hundred and Seventy Engravings after Drawings by … entirely etched in copper.) Zwickau, Literatur- und Kunst=Comptoir, between 1808 + 1827. Large fol. 2 unnumbered ll. title, preface + contents and besides an additional old washed brush drawing in grey + brown by other hand

170  (1 of which exchanged)  etchings

(5.4-21.2 x 6.7-27.7 cm), 10 of these (partially) coloured, in original mounting in points on 59 sheets.

with 5 imitated ribs with green back-plate, artist’s name on frontcover + ridinger handlung niemeyer on its inner cover, Ridinger stag vignette and line on both boards, all gilt tooled in 23.5 carat, in equal half leather slipcase with the stag vignette on both boards.

Nagler (1848) 43, not quite correctly (so then, too, before, p. 514, “about 184”) as

“ Complete  Edition  of  his  Works ” .

So not included from his single listing 1-39 items 1-3 (statue of landgrave Frederick II of Hesse, portraits of spouses Kästner), 8/9 (Augustus + Cinna, Augustus at Alexander’s Grave), 14 (Old Female Beggar), 29 (Stags in Landscape after Potter) + 39 (Grasshopper Flight near Bender, “rare to be found and he himself talking of “about 184” elsewhere, while 1939 Thieme-Becker, all etching exercises included, come to about 350 sheet. In any case the collection present here is

the  most  comprehensive  edition

and therefore  the  documentation of the work pure and simple,

dominated  by  the  animal  and  hunting  pieces

but nevertheless of course offering far more, also warming up the animal pieces by local stuff.

Worked after pictures especially also of the legendary art gallery at Cassel whose First Inspector he was for decades, as after designs of his uncle and teacher, Johann Heinrich I, the “Cassel Tischbein”, and own ones from nature

as  results  of  not  least  his  personal  passion  for  the  hunt .

Whereby just the use of most different copper techniques, repeatedly also of colored papers, presents the eye with optical variety and charming view-points. This special spectrum then also stressed by Walter Schürmeyer as an essential artistic characteristic sui generis:

„ This nephew of the famous Johann Heinrich T. (I) was

an  extremely  industrious  and  skilled  etcher .

He illustrated his ‘Abbreviated Treatise on the Art of Etching’ (Cassel 1790) with 84 sheets etched by himself. Already in 1785 the ‘Attempts of Several Manners in Etching’ (12 sheet after older masters) had been published. 1789 he again published ‘Attempts in Etched Sheets in Several Manners’ (64 ll.). The complete edition of his works comprises 170 sheet (sic!) after older masters (as as exclusively not correct, see below). After his death 50 of his sheets became a set ‘The Fair Game’ in Zwickau in 1827 (Nagler 45; Lindner 11.2083.01 ‘… 30 not numbered sheets onto which the hunting prints are loosely mounted’, otherwise erroneously as Joh. Hch. T. I). A further set ‘Animal Studies’ same place (1827) contains 30 sheet (Nagler 45; under here previously traded other title of 36 sheet) ”

(Löffler-Kirchner, Lexikon des gesamten Buchwesens III [1937], 402 f.).

Said compilations each of throughout old or previous impressions, trimmed in the manner of the old albums within the white platemark, in formats of 5.4-21.2 x 6.7-27.7 cm and mounted in points on – here 59 – underlay sheets.

Ten of the works are (partly) colored. Sheet 65, Two quarrelling Horsemen (Nagler 16), obviously already taken out by old and replaced by a washed brush drawing in grey + brown on old laid paper of two billy-goats near brick-work observed by a boy (130 x 185 mm), onto which later again an etched “Resting Group of a Billy-Goat with Two Sheep” after Johann Heinrich Roos (12 x 17.7 cm; 10-13 mm wide margins) was laid upon that has been loosened at both the lower corners for lifting up.

The preservation corresponding to the excellent quality of the impressions. To be mentioned just isolated little foxing spots, only sheet 147 (Hardenberg Castle near Göttingen) especially in the sky part more impairingly, and a partially appearing feeble waterstreak in the right lower corner of the mounting paper.

Here  available  for  the  first  time

the copy is identical with one recorded for 1964 + 1980 (too early as “ca. 1800”) in the Yearbook of Auction Results and further ones have not become known here. The quite considerable rarity therefore to be assumed is supported by its

It results inevitably anyway just by the fact of the mounting compilation (plate dates here up to 1795). Neither Nagler nor Löffler-Kirchner mention a date for the “complete edition”, the posthumous edition of present copy results from the preface.

The sheets, executed partially with more or less, but also completely in aquatint, here and there even in vernis mou, and present in excellent printing quality, are partially inscribed with name(s)/monogram of artists + date, less with title and sporadically with dedication. For those in reddish/brownish print or on colored paper see below. – Title + contents on laid paper watermarked with large fleur-de-lis and Whatman resp.

The compilation as following :

I.)  Human  Heads  (16)

First the title engraving “Experiments in Etched Sheets by J. H. Tischbein jun” after Agricola to the 12-sheet set Nagler 40 of 1775. – Otherwise i. a. the portraits of count A. von Veltheim (on brown paper) and the Göttingen jurist Georg Heinrich Ayrer (Meiningen 1702 – 1774) as well as heads after Lievens + Jordaens (1 each) and Rembrandt (3, one of which - no. 10 - not related as after Rembrandt, but standing in connection with his self portrait to the right Bartsch 27 [ills. Schwartz, R. Etchings, 1977, no. 27] worked by Tischbein presumably after the 1634 etching in reverse by the Rembrandt pupil Joris van Vliet). Six of the works after own design.

II.)  Historical  Figures  (19)

Four of these after Johann Heinrich Tischbein I, the uncle. – Further after Teniers (The Philosopher, rich with symbols of vanity; The Scissors-Grinder; The Skittle Players) + Rembrandt (2). – Further: Jacob blesses Joseph’s Children / Termosiris teaches Telemach in Music / Diogenes (very fine on blue paper) / Chimney-Sweep / Bagpiper / Violinist and others more.

III.)  Agricultural  Animals  (27)

Among these the 5-sheet group of horses after Johann Georg Pforr (friend + brother-in-law of Tischbein, his “horse pieces generally (were) admired and praised as unsurpassed”, Nagler; here, very fine, with light bridle, blanket + portmanteau, sprightly to the left), Philip Reinagle, Johann Friedrich Steinkopf and anonymous. – Otherwise after Berchem, Potter (4, among these two horned cattle pendants “from the famous painting … in the … Gallery at Cassel … (called) the Pissing Cow” which Nagler reckons among Tischbein’s most excellent sheets; also separately available per 14,927), Willem Romeyn (also separately per 14,920), Johann Heinrich (7) + Philipp Peter (1) Roos and anonymous.

IV.)  Horses  and  Horsemen  (see to III, too)  (2 instead of 3)

Besides the “Man on Horseback with Coat and with the Hat on his Head” (Nagler 17, “delicately etched”) the famous sujet “Falconer on Horseback” with two hounds (N. 15 erroneously “before two horses”) after Jan Martsen de Jonge; inscribed: M. D. Junge 1635 / J. H. Tischbein jun. f. 1785. – For the sheet of the two quarreling horsemen replaced otherwise see above.

V.)  Hounds  (15)

Besides Tischbein’s own pointer printed in brown with the owner’s mark “T” on the collar worth prominent rendering especially the  American  hound Trimm of prince Friedrich von Waldeck with the collar monogram “F. F. Z. W.” and the princely Waldeck head equerry von Schünstedt’s “famous hunting (dachs)hund Klopan drawn from life in Wildungen etched by J. H. Tischbein 1794” (so the written pre-owner’s subtext in German) with the collar monogram “S” – Further Great Dane, boar hound, three greyhounds, a pointer, three hunting hounds, among these “Walkire” (apart 5,262 and further 5,263), a lying hound printed in brown (delicate sheet) + Pomeranian dogs.

VI.)  Hunting  Pieces  (9)

First as the most grandiose sheet of the œuvre the

(20.8 x 26.3 cm) by his most humble friend and servant J. H. Tischbein 1786.”. – Worth prominent rendering further Ruthart’s suspense-packed scenery of the two stags attacked by three leopards (stag + deer, coloured, as with 19.2 x 23.8 cm original-sized repetition in reverse of the Ruthart etching Hollstein 3; not coloured apart 14,890) / Potter’s Ox Hunt with the Three Horsemen and the Bison pestered by the Four Hounds, one of these – as quite unusual depiction – is thrown through the air (15 x 23.8 cm) / The Boar Hunt with the Four Hounds (11.3 x 16.9 cm; apart 14,911) / The Chief Boar hunted by a Hound (9.1 x 17.2 cm, very delicate; apart 14,912) / The Fugitive Stag of Twelve Points at the Slope seized by the Furious Pack, three of them done though, (17.5 x 24 cm; apart 10,988) / The shot Stag of Eight Points hunted by a Hound (14.5 x 20.2 cm, marvellously delicate), drawn by Tischbein from life as, too, the Hare Hawking (7.8 x 25.8 cm) / The Bear tearing down a Bull (coloured, 20.2 x 26.7 cm).

With the stag of fourteen points (?) after  Ridinger  (Schwarz I, XXIV “of 16 points”, 20.4 x 26.6 cm), inscribed: Joh: El: Ridinger del: 1734 (sic, contrary to Schwarz!) / (Dedicated to commander Sir von Veltheim by his most humble friend and servant / J. H. Tischbein jun: 1785).

Then  as  drawn  by  Tischbein  from  life :

Fallow-deer in the Deerpark of District President von Meysenbug zu Riede (near Wolfhagen/Cassel, 19.2 x 27 cm; two royal deer with fallow-doe + kid, set back on the left at the start of a tree-lined walk frolicking horse + sheep, at its end monument with figurine) / White High Class Game … in the Pasture near Cassel … 1787 (15.4 x 23.5 cm; royal with four deer) / Fallow-Deer in the Pasture near Cassel … 1787 (14,4 x 17 cm; royal fallow-deer and two fallow-does, printed in delicate brown).

Furthermore a coloured hind after Johann Heinrich Roos (18.5 x 15.5 cm; uncoloured apart 14,895), three stags, a roebuck and five boars, four of these leaping, the startled fifth “(drawn from life near Wildungen … 1794 and etched by H. Tischbein)”.

VIII.)  Dead  Game  (10)

Three stags, bucks + boars each and a chamois, all drawn by Tischbein from life. – On this the introduction :

“ According to confirmed reports a wild boar he had shot in the area of Göttingen offered the first motive to this as to his efforts in etching. Glad about his hunting luck on the spot he did a sketch of the game shot by him which he later etched. Impressions of this pleased both friends and connoisseurs so much that he, encouraged from all sides, executed several drawings and plates of game partially shot by himself and other dead game, partially of living game, from which gradually the present collection emerged. ”

IX.)  Wild  Winged  Game  (9)

After Oudry Ducks in the Reed near a Property Surprised by Predatory Bird (18.1 x 24.4 cm; apart 14,903) + Pointer at Pheasants (20.3 x 27.4 cm; coloured; uncoloured apart 10,975) / by Tischbein An Ostrich from Life in Cassel + Goshawk Striking a Duck, equally from life (apart 14,904). – Furthermore a capercaillie, vulture, black stork, pheasant (apart 14,928) and casuar.

X.)  Wild  Animals  (20)

All (recte 19) by Tischbein from life. In particular four lions, one of which attacking a leopard, twice the same leopard with two young ones, the first inscribed “(… with its young ones cubbed in the year 1774, in the menagerie at Cassel / H. Tischbein Jun. fec. 1783)” (14.6 x 18.1 cm), tiger (2), hyena, black + white bear, three wolves (the lying third of these according to the inscription after the great L. von Wildungen, electorate Hesse head forester in Marburg), badger, beaver, young elephant, buffalo, fox + wild tomcat, the latter “… den 19ten Febr. 1783 / H. Tischbein Jun. fec.”.

XI.)  Landscapes  (14)

First the title engraving “(Experiments in Etched Sheets in Different Manners by Johann Heinrich Tischbein Jun: Inspector of the Princely Gallery at Cassel)” to the 64-sheet set Nagler 4 of 1789. – Then Large Landscape after Rembrandt with the two huntsmen from 1788 (18.1 x 25.5 cm) / after Joh. Hch. Tischbein I Dwelling of Democrites (with hunter) and Cottage of Socrates resp., both “(on the Weissenstein near Cassel)” (ca. 19 x 26.5 cm) / “(Hardenberg Castle near Göttingen)” (16 x 19.4 cm) / “(The Old Hardenberg Castle)” (15.7 x 19.5 cm) / Landscape with Water after Kobell / Ruins of a Church / Hilly Landscape with Property and Figurines after Gerbrand van den Eeckhout / Windmill at a Canal and City-Wall of a Netherlandish Town / Landscape with Tower / A Forest / Tree after supposedly Jacob van Ruisdael / Ark at Riede.

XII.)  Animal  Heads  and  Animal  Rarities  (14)

With the exception of an ox head by Johann Heinrich Roos all by Tischbein from life. – In particular three stag heads (one of these finely printed in brown; apart 14,894) + one deer (with horn) heads / two heads of roebucks, one with six horns / Head of a Wild Boar / Fox with White Neck (apart 14,887) / Black Fox / two lion heads, one on blue paper, the other printed in brown / Two-headed Lamb “(… drawn in the museum at Cassel. 1786.)”.

Johann Heinrich jr. “painted landscape and animals and after a longer stay in Holland he settled down in Cassel”, where in 1775 he became inspector of the gallery there especially famous for its Netherlandish paintings. He “was, too, – so Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie XXXVIII, 364 f. continues –

an  able  engraver ”.

On this latter occupation 50 years before Nagler remarked, however, his sheets were “indeed not without interest, but they are not of high value”. What surprises on the side of the otherwise that knowledgeable Nagler, for they distinguish themselves by great intuition + natural. Personally

“ (He  loved)  the  hunt  nearly  passionately

and practised it besides his art for relaxation and amusement …

On  the  excellence  of  his  works , especially  the  hunting  pieces ,

the greatest praises of famous connoisseurs , as by a count von Mellin (author of the Hunting-Grounds) von Wildungen and Hartig, could be mentioned, who acknowledged00nd  praised  in  his  works

(from the foreword).

Here then present the “Complete Edition” nearly comprising the whole œuvre per showcase copy within the Red Series of the ridinger gallery niemeyer.
Offer no. 14,929  /  price on request

“ Beautiful Rugendas colour print arrived! Thanks very much for keeping me informed. Best regards ”

(Mr. J. R. L., June 11, 2004)

The  Cream  of  the  Day