Franconian  Saint  Hubert  in  Rome

Reinhart, Johann Christian (Hof 1761 – Rome 1847). The Landscape with Saint Hubert. In stage-like rocky-woody foreground on the left the stag standing on an elevation, on the opposite side symbolically in the sun the young nobleman with the hunting-knife at his side fallen down onto his knees, the right pressed to the chest and greeting with the raised left. Behind him pack of three and the groom with rifle leading the horse. Downhill the vista goes through an opening in the scenery towards the deeply staggered hilly Roman neighborhood cast in bright light. Etching. Inscribed on stone lower right in the subject “R (ligated JR?) / 1811.” + left below of the subject J. C. Reinhart inv. et fec. Romæ 1810 (sic!). 20.7 x 26.9 cm.

Andresen-Feuchtmayer 123, II (of III); Nagler, Monogramists, IV, 3507 (as “R”), 1; the same, Künstler-Lex., 50. – Plate 1 of the 6-sheet set of landscapes dated in the lower margin with 1805, 1810 + 1815, “one of which with the legend of Saint Hubert” (Nagler 50-55; Weigel, Art Stock Cat., IV [1837], 5327 [impressions on toned paper]). – One of the few plates in the œuvre with additional monogram:

“ Most plates bear the name of the artist, only few the letter R  and  C.R. With R (5) are inscribed: 1) The Landscape with Saint Hubert, 1811. … ”

(Nagler). – Not among the 172 illustrations of the – compared with the first edition of 1927 – richly enlarged second one of 1949 of Huyghebaert’s Sint Hubertus Patroon van de Jagers in Woord en Beeld.

THE  RICH  SUJET  – the saint, however, in Dürer-German manner with the hat with plume kept on – in very fine impression with margins of 0.3 (below) up to 0.8 cm all around on toned vélin with small collector’s mark at the back (not in Lugt). – Browning at the back including two feeble waterstreaks on the edge, the former almost only perceptible somewhat on the front lower right in the white margin, of the waterstreaks only the one on the left and only barely noticeable.

“ R.s early development in Germany, auspiciously directed by Klengel, fully developed in Meiningen, shows an

enormous  freshness  and  freedom  of  perception  of  nature ,

especially in drawing and etching. Here he belongs to the most important discoverers of the intimate, closely seen landscape, to the liberators of a new real vision from the fetters of Dutch tradition in Germany. This refreshing originality of observation still lasts in the first Roman time … indeed only there his liveliest animal etchings were created which place him at the side of the revivers of animal depiction … and point far into the 19^th century. Also his early pastoral scenes in Rome with their beautiful fusion of naturalism and bold spaciousness are aglow with the powerful experience of nature at Meiningen … ”

“ A great lover of the hunt he liked to furnish his landscapes with animals … ”

(Thieme-Becker XXVIII [1934], p. 126, and Muther in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie [XXVIII, 1889, p. 75]) resp.
Offer no. 15,176 / EUR  790. / Export price EUR  751. (c. US$ 1212.) + shipping

„ vielen herzlichen Dank für die Faxübermittlung Ihres Schriftverkehrs mit … Hochinteressant und das Thema (des jagdlichen) ‚Wurstwagen‘ wunderbar anschaulich darstellend! Nochmals vielen Dank! “

(Museum S. B., 23. Februar 2004)

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