Good  Grand  Old  Party

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The Vengeance of a Lowly on a Mighty is pernicious (or, so in the new edition of 1825, Powerless rage destroys itself). An elephant – for the Indian poets

(Meyer’s Convers.-Lex., 4^th ed., V, 510/II), one of them together then the leader of the Grand Old Party, too, – travelling on an educational trip through Europe has hurt inadvertently a pertness little fox

Etching + engraving. (1744.) Inscribed: J. E. Ridinger inv. sculp. et excud., otherwise as above in German, French, and Latin. 33.6 x 25.1 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 771; Metzner-Raabe, Illustr. Fabelbuch, 1998, vol. II (Bodemann), 123.I. – Sheet 7 of the intellectually as optically exceedingly charming “Instructive Fables from the Animals’ Kingdom for Improvement of the Manners

and  especially  for  the  Instruction  of  the  Youth ”

by which

“ Ridinger pursued a typical purpose of his epoch. A ‘Correction of Manners’ by the morale efficacy of art  William  Hogarth , almost of the same age as Ridinger, had tried – though in a quite different way – by his paintings and prints … But while Hogarth and Chodowiecki tried to gain recognition of their (same) ideas by satirical sets as ‘A Rake’s Progress’, 1735, … Ridinger tied up to the tradition of the animal fable (that is, so he himself, ‘since the hoary times of the ancient ages’) as especially suitable to him ”

(Stefan Morét, Ridinger Catalogue Darmstadt, 1999, p. 96).

And  specially  hereto  Ridinger  himself :

“ The elephant did a travel to Europe to become acquainted with the traditions there … and had the misfortune to tread off the tail of a young fox who was, by forwardness to view him, coming too near to him. The fox … set up a great shout and called to his folks to revenge this shame and insult, which this (Non-European) has done to him. All came to terms about this and considered how they could attack so that their revenge would be carried out. It did not lack of artfulness and rage, but, nevertheless, it went off badly. Some the elephant trampled to death , others he took up with his trunk

( “… in  the  trunk  they  have  an  almost  incredible  power …

whereby  they  could  give  dreadful  strokes …” )

and drew them into the height … This went so to heart of an old fox that he began to shout at the top of his voice: Oh tyrannical manifestation! No, the elephant said,

on  such  a  revenge  such  a  deserts  follows .”

Pictorially by the way Ridinger leaving, creating a new image type, once more tradition and field behind himself. For, so Ulrike Bodemann in Metzner-Raabe,

“ No  similarity  to  fable  illustrations  known  hitherto .

Enormous image sizes filled almost entirely by the representation of a central factor of the fable tale. Surroundings mostly dense, natural wood .”

And Regine Timm, ibid., vol. I, p. 171 :

“ In his large plates Ridinger … sometimes has included vegetable growth or rocks, too, dominantly in his illustrations indeed, but without decorative intention. The plants and rocks mean the thicket, the deserted loneliness of the forest, in which the strange tales among the animals happen. ”

The great intellectual relationship with the already mentioned Hogarth by the way also unmistakably expressed in Garrick’s epitaph for this:

Chronologically interesting in this connection interesting that on the other side of the channel in 1726 John Gay, famous-notorious for his “Beggars Opera” (Brecht, Threepenny Opera!), by his “Fables” had laid before “the most important achieved hitherto by English poets in this kind” (Meyers Konvers.-Lex., 4^th ed., VI, 960/II).

The set consists of 20 plates, of which Johann Elias, however, has published only the first sixteen. Presumably by stylistic scruple. For with the four last, etched/engraved only by his eldest, Martin Elias, and published posthumously, he gives up the superabundance of the previous in favour of a sovereignly formulated large flat clearness with which to grapple with he obviously has shied at the end though. And where to follow him was impossible for Thienemann, too, still one hundred years later (“have less artistic value, but are nevertheless estimable, and their rarity is to be regretted”). What here, however, is seen as a remarkably further developed artistic expressiveness. Culminating in the fascination to have created not only a new fable image, but this, once more in itself, developed further to a new level.

Ridinger’s fable image then also a most highly important milestone within the “basic corpus of about 900 editions of illustrated fable books” up to Chagall’s Lafontaine folio with its 100 etchings worked 200 years later as downright a glaring light for the immortality of the fable illustration.

That Ridinger had created his set originally substantially more voluminously is proven by his preparatory drawing sold here to the 20^th fable inscribed by him with “Fab 31”, that to the 19^th inscribed with “Fabel 29.” (Weigel, 1869, no. 384), and that further one numbered with “30” known to Thienemann, which has been unconsidered like other, unnumbered, ones, too.

The watercoloured original pen drawing in the same direction from the Weigel sale (not in the 1869 catalogue of the bequeathed drawings), figuring as “Splendid, completely executed water colour” per lot 110 on the 1890 Ridinger sale at Wawra in Vienna, now in a Bavarian Ridinger collection. That drawing in reverse used for the transfer on the copper-plate was on the market in the 1980s. And a executed study of the elephant in the 1990s in America.

Splendid  early  impression . – Without the numbering above right unknown in general, but appearing later. – Lying loosely on bluish-grey paper of the early 18^th century watermarked SICKTE along with a C, open to the left, under a crown of a prince (Von Veltheim paper mill at Sickte, Lower Saxony) on which it was mounted in the second half of the 19^th century. – Above mostly trimmed on platemark, otherwise throughout with a little margin additionally to the fine white platemark itself. – Brown stipples in the left ear of the elephant.
Offer no. 12,505 / EUR  649. / Export price EUR  617. (c. US$ 978.) + shipping

“ Thank you Mr. Niemeyer, The prints (you are delivered two weeks ago) are being framed right now. My framer is very particular (works for the National Gallery … ) and I am having a perfect frame made for the large Ridinger (the imperial stag hunt Th. 67). Best regards ”

(Mr. J. R. L., November 19, 2003)