Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The Weasels. Two in front of underwood and rocky scenery, one coming from behind a stone, the other on top of that. Etching and engraving. (1740.) Inscribed: J. E. R. f., otherwise in German as before. 19.1 x 15.6 cm.

Sheet 89 (Thienemann + Schwarz 479) of the “Design of Several Animals” (“These plates are very much wanted and often copied”, Thienemann 1856).

The  Thematic  Primer  Detonation .

Marc’s oil of the “Playing Weasels”, to whom the lithograph of the same name has been preceded in 1910/10, reveals the knowledge of quite several Ridinger coppers from entirely different sets. Marc shows two weasels, of which the one, bowed over a bough, looks down upon the other sitting in raised attitude. The trees besides of an eccentricity as in this ostensible density used by him in the painting œuvre only still on the two “Acts under Trees”, Hoberg-Janssen 143, of the same year.

At Ridinger’s weasels there are two playing ones, too, but both on the earth in completely different surroundings. The latter Marc splitted up.

from sheet 86 (Thienemann 476, see below) of the set . The young one of them, bowing over a low bough like at Marc and looking at the dam standing on the hind paws against the trunk, baiting with a captured bird. But the

bizarre  trees

– and as such ones Sälzle characterized them expressly in the edition of the preparatory drawings for the following suite– as rather rarer for Ridinger, too,

as sheet 19 (Thienemann 181, see below) of the concurrent suite of the “Illustration of the Fair Game with the Respective Traces and Scents” with the marten on the tree at the same attitude and a weasel on the ground shown, however, neutrally.

Thus Marc formulated his “Playing Weasels” just so by means of three Ridinger copies as the latter on his part his “The Amusement of the Shepherds” after Watteau, Thienemann-Stillfried 1397, composed from four models of the French. That finally the trees as more typical for Ridinger was not unfamiliar to Marc, too, shows the right group of such of his forest picture “The Würm near Pipping” from 1902/03, H.-J. 15 with ills. But also the par force scenery on the watercolor “Ried Castle” worked one year later – Holst, ills. 11, page 29 – stands for a further example

Ref. no. 14,999 / in stock – not catalogued / request description & offer

The  Model  of  the  Pose  of  the  two  Martens

Pine Marten. A young one looking down from a branch to its mother bringing a bird. Etching + engraving. (1740.) Inscribed: J. E. R. fec. / N. 86., title in German as before. 18.5 x 14.6 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 476. – Sheet 86 from Design of Several Animals ( “These sheets are much wanted and often copied”, Thienemann 1856 ). – Marvellous, wide-margined impression of the 1^st edition.
Offer no. 7,332 / EUR  248. (c. US$ 400.) + shipping

– The same  together with its pendant of the two beech martens Th. 475.
Ref. no. 15,007 / in stock – not catalogued / request description & offer

Acted  as  a  Model  for  the  Bizarre  Trees

Trace of a Marten / Trace of the Weasel. Both in original size as lower part of a moonlit landscape of warped trees with a view on a village in a valley. The pine marten looking down from a tree, at the bottom the weasel. Etching + engraving. (1740.) Above right numbered with Ridinger’s own hand with 19, below right inscribed in the plate: J. E. Ridinger inv. del. sculps. et excud. Aug. Vind., otherwise in German as before. 37.6 x 29.6 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 181; Ridinger catalogue Darmstadt, 1999, III.29 with ills., all as the final state with the engraved number 19. – Compare with no. 18 of the publications of the ridinger gallery niemeyer. – Sheet 19 of the “Illustration of the Fair Game with the Respective Traces and Scents etc.” . – Proof  impression  before  the engraved number above right after the drawing of 1739 (Weigel 544). – Somewhat time-marked, but of fine chiaroscuro.

Ridinger’s own hand of the numbering here, as later taken over at the same place of the plate, documented on grounds of a comparison with dates and numberings of drawings as well to the set of the Fair Game as numerous others, among them the Main Colors of the Horses. Starting of this examination was a copy of the Fair Game in uniformly excellent printing qualities, whose plates 1-20 were numbered completely in the correct sequence with Ridinger’s own hand.
Offer no. 12,485 / EUR  865. / Export price EUR  822. (c. US$ 1327.) + shipping

The  Riding  Scene  to  the  Woodcut

The Trotting. Open place in front of the ruins of an once imposing estate with group of four horses and six grooms under supervision of the equerry. Finely bordered pen and brown ink with grey wash. (1722.) 214 x 340 mm.

The original drawing before being side-inverted for the preparation of the etching for plate 3 – Thienemann 608 – of the first riding school as the wonderful evidence of the perfection of style Ridinger had already reached in the early age of 24. The etchings for the 23-sheet-suite, however, were done by Johann Daniel Hertz and Johann Balthasar Probst for Jeremias Wolff, all situated in Augsburg, who published the suite in 1722. Signature and date of the drawings – with this and a further one here now 18 leaves are known to have overcome to us – to be found on the title: JOH: ELIAS: RIDINGER: invenit et delineavit Anno 1722. Manner and typing of the inscription quite according to that of an Alexander-the-Great-drawing of 1723.

The scenery, dominated by the horse trotting at the longe on the right, subtitled in the etching “In many the pace is correct …”. While on the left a horseman only mounts his horse, held by the groom, the one and only already mounted one trains his own, good to look in the middle distance beyond the longe. And just whose detail

of 1913 (Lankheit 839, 27 x 29.3 cm).

Worked by Marc in the year of the “Tower of the Blue Horses” as one of the icons of the modernity, “the richest (year of his) creativeness” (Christian von Holst). And along with the simultaneous woodcut “Lion Hunting after Delacroix” the work stands for that time of that “well is to speak of a literal entry of the rider into the œuvre of Marc … The animalizing of art aimed at again and again by Marc by abstracting insight into the horse’s and the remaining animal world’s nature … now tips over repeatedly

into  the  revival  of  the  unity  of  horse  and  rider

… He presents himself as “Blue Rider” by a postcard to Else Lasker-Schüler of 1912, who stands beside and behind resp. of his horse and blends into a unity with him (from the view here in anticipation of the “powerful rhythmic depiction” of the “Riding Scene after Ridinger”) … The hound below right (on the latter) which may remind the onlooker rather of a hunting scene, is owed likewise to Ridinger’s “Riding Art” (comp. the corresponding hounds on the sheets 5, 18 and 22). It looks back as it would see where his master, the rider, stays away. An eager atmosphere of departure determines the scene

The rider and the horse form a unity in their extreme impulse of motion. Although

with  Ridinger  Marc  picks  up  a  specialist  of  the trained  horse

it does not go for him on behalf of an artificial symbiosis of man-animal articulating itself especially by training of the horse in the artificial paces” (Andreas Schalhorn). And

(von Holst).

The quotes from Christian von Holst (Ed.), Franz Marc – (Horses). Catalogue of the 2000 exhibition of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart – special issue 2003 – , pp. 122, 250 f. + 165 f. with illustrations 151 f., 208 + 9. – See i. a., too, Franz (Ed.), Franz Mark – (Powers of Nature, Works) 1912-1915. Catalogue of the exhibition in Munich + Münster, 1993, nos. 138 f. with ills. pp. 300 f.

The ruins reminding at Ridinger of southernly patterns and thus surely a reverence to Italy to where this was on the point of going to during his apprenticeship at Ulm only a few years ealier.

Although Ridinger created five riding schools with 111 etchings altogether, one has to go back to Weigel’s inheritance listed in the 1869 Catalogue of a Collection of Original Drawings including a Special Section “Johann Elias Ridinger’s Bequest in Drawings” to find a few (12) pictorial drawings belonging to this part of his rich œuvre, partly dated 1744 to 1760 (nos. 816-827).

The 19-sheet lot 828 may well have consisted of studies just as in view of riding schools no. 318 with its 305 leaves “Studies, Outlining(s) and executed Drawings of Horses and their Races, Riding School, in black and red chalk resp., pen and ink, of the years 1717 to 1760”. Otherwise the works in question would surely have been included within the section of “Riding School” of lots 816 ff.

Also within the 234 drawings contained in 146 lots of the “Fine Collection of Drawings and Engravings by Joh. El. Ridinger of the Possession of a renown Collector” sold at the Wawra auction in Vienna on May 19 ff, 1890 not one pictorial drawing on this theme is to be found.

According to our admittedly not complete but comprehensive archive there are only those bare preparatory drawings and studies which appeared single or in groups on the market since Weigel. As a more comprehensive collection at last a lot of chalk drawings of which 26 belonged to the Small Riding School of 1760/61 traded hereself in 1987.

This only interupted by two earlier events, followed by the one here:

In 1986 Prince Johannes of Thurn und Taxis contributed five drawings for Ridinger’s New Riding School for the tombola of the Ball of the Press in Bonn. This prize was the only one not entered in the ball’s almanack with its worth, but by insiders was regarded as being

Five years later a set of 16 completely executed original drawings in the same direction as the etchings of the 23-leaved New Riding Skills of 1722 debuted with an estimation of 360,000 marks at an auction. All mounted at the beginning of the 19^th century and fancily bordered on the mounting paper in black ink, on the sides additionally with a line of horseshoes crescending from top and bottom. This finally mounted on a wooden frame and than framed in black and bronze frame.

This stock counted up to the recent time at least 18 works, but was decimated by two by way of separation. These – see also offer no. 28,072 – presented in the same kind as described above. For more timeless presentation the black and bronze frames have been removed (but are still available, of course), the drawings themselves set into acidfree passepartouts with gilt stamped artist’s name und dates, covering also the additional edging as being not originally intended by Ridinger.

Like the other known drawings of the set mounted at the beginning of the 19^th century and fancily bordered on the mounting paper in black ink, on the sides additionally with  a  line  of  horseshoes  crescending  from  top  and  bottom . This finally mounted on a wooden frame and than framed in black and bronze frames. For more timeless presentation these two latters have been removed and the drawing itself set into acidfree passepartout with gilt stamped artist’s name und dates, covering also the additional edging as being not originally intended by Ridinger.

In such a way then are

Pictorial  Ridingschool-Drawings  Paramount  Ridinger-Rarities .

The condition of the one said here is quite fine. The tender edging not any more covering in all places, here and there somewhat cut away also. The almost uniform slight browness in no way a nuisance to the general impression. That the plasticity was diminished a bit – supposedly by influence of light – attracting attention only by comparison with the parallel drawing. And generally enthusing the vigour of the drawing itself mirroring the youthfulness of the artist himself.

The virginity of both the drawings offered here as well as that other part offered formerly can be supposed as being a lot more ancient than back to Weigel. Just as other works of the early twenties Ridinger did not engrave himself, e. g. for the group of Alexander and Pharaoh, for which the drawings cannot be traced neither with Weigel, who took over the artistic estate in 1830, nor otherwise, the drawings for the Riding School of 1722 seem to have been passed over to the publisher. Later on they obviously went their own way without touching the documented market. To this

attraction  of  being  preservated  extraordinarily

comes – since nevertheless artistically complete – the fascination of great earlyness accompanied by being embedded within the evolution of cultural history:

“ Art history looks at Ridinger not only as the perfectionist of the hunting engraving of the 18^th century, but also the masterly interpreter of the depiction of the rider and the horse …

“ It should … be remembered that the pure artistic interest in the horse is a main part of western art history since antiquity, since the origin of the Parthenon frieze … Only in the renaissance the (equestrian art) flourished with new liveliness. First in the frescos of Benozzo Gozzoli and Vittorio Carpaccio, in the drawings of Pisanello and Leonardo da Vinci … It was reserved to the Dutch to develop masterly realism in depicting the horse …

“ With this we are at the preconditions for the art of Ridinger. It can be assumed that he became acquainted with Dutch horse pictures in Augsburg. They were available in engravings and were sometimes copied as well. From such models which might have been mediated to him by his tutor Rugendas and from the indepth study of the animals theirselves he developed his quite personal mastery in depicting the horse. One feels the pleasure about viewing the living creature, about the harmonic concurrence of anatomy and movement, about the inner symmetry of horse and rider, last but not least also by the elegance of attitude characterizing all engravings of Ridinger ”

(Herbert Schindler in the introduction of the 1975 facsimile edition of the Small Riding School).

If there is the question of elegance then there should also be mentioned Karl Sälzle, who in 1980 prefaced the edition of the facsimile of drawings for the Fair Game set by saying:

To this now then the chance here. In absolute quality ,

Offer no. 28,071  /  price on request

The  Definitive  Catalogue  of  the  “Blue  Rider”

Hoberg, Annegret + Isabelle Janssen. Franz Marc. Werkverzeichnis. Vol. I: The Paintings (244 nos.). December 2003. 4to. 339 pp. With 279 illustrations, 221 in color and numerous toned, frequently full-paged. Ochre orig. cloth with green flyleaves.

Introduction in German, the catalogue itself with German-English title designations, the further specifications in English, neutralized per glossary in English-German at the end. – With concordance to Lankheit.

In preparation the volumes II (watercolors, gouaches, drawings, postcards, pictures behind glass, sculpture; c. autumn 2004) + III (sketch-books, graphic; c. early 2005).
Offer no. 28,643 / EUR  248. (c. US$ 400.) + shipping

Vol. I if subscribing all three volumes:
Offer no. 28,643.1-3 / EUR  218. (c. US$ 352.) + shipping

free  shipping  within  Germany

“ Subject: Thanks!

Thanks for your kind reply. I wanted to comment that your thoughts on freedom (the quote that you had on the end of your message to me) are exactly the same as my beliefs.

I write, however, because I was surprised to get it from Europe … Although an American, almost all my early family were Huguenots … In fact, my relative, Jan C. is noted as the earliest C. to have arrived in N. America (in 1636, I think) … ”

(Mrs. C. F., November 14, 2003)