“ Here  now  only  the  real  stag  hunting  goes  on “

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The Stag is taken up by the Piqueur the whole pack brought onto the track by those breaks and loosened according to their herds. On the left the stag breaks through the underwood of the thick forest, already nearly reached by the first hound and two horsemen, the piqueurs, close to him. The remaining pack with noses on the ground following hollows from the center as from the right and followed themselves by the hunters. Etching and engraving. Inscribed: J. E. Ridinger del. sc. et exc. A. V., otherwise in German as above. 31.5 x 48.5 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 57; Weigel, Art Stock Cat., 4a + 16545 (“old now only seldom occurring impressions”, 1847!); Stubbe, Johann Elias Ridinger, 1966, pp. 15 f. – Title of the third part of the set (“The Par Force Hunt’s 3^rd. Part.”).

“ Here now only the real stag hunting goes on. The stag in greatest flight is tracked by hunters and hounds in masses “

(Thienemann).

Extensive 7-line subtext in German. – Marvellous impression on buff laid paper with typographic watermark with margins laterally 7-7.8, top and below 5.2-5.4 cm wide. – Both the two stitching holes from the publishers in the left margin backed acid-freely, just as a small tear off at the right and tiny holes in the fold traces of former narrow folding of the lateral white margins.

As a whole this “late imposing series of the par force hunt” is for Stubbe, till 1969 Supreme Custodian of the print room of the Hamburg Art Gallery,

an  absolutum  of  harmony  and  ripe  mastership

as he explains by example of its sheets 8 + 12 (Th. 56 + 60) in comparison to the corresponding ones of the early “Princely Hunting Pleasure”. Accordingly, too, Rolf Biedermann:

“ … in the … ‘Par Force Hunt’ … the compactness of the picture setting by homogeneous light effect and greater approximation of tone values prevails. Added a more deep-spaced formation of the landscapes and a closer clamping of the composition of figures ”

(Ridinger Catalogue Augsburg 1967, p. 3 of the introduction). – It belongs

“ to  the  most  wanted  works  by  our  master ,

all the more as after the abolition of the par force hunt it even got a historical value ” (Thienemann) – and shows in four parts

the  complete  course  of  a  classic  par  force  hunt

whose inventor, according to Döbel, Saint Hubert “shall be” – see on this in general as in detail Gisela Siebert, Kranichstein, 64 f. – and whose respective stations are explained by the extensive subtext.

“ In the fast pursuit of the stag by the pack and the mounted hunters, in his distinction from the other deer and in finding again the lost trace charm and meaning of this hunt were based. ‘It is the same an amusing and pleasant hunt for those who enjoy riding, want to hear the sound of the hounds, and estimate the blowing, as in which actually the hunt consists of’ … Döbel writes in his … ‘Jäger-Practica’. The par force hunt requested excellent huntsmen … who had to be at the peak of hunting training of their age, had to know the hunt and ‘correct signs’ of the stag, command their horse, work with the hounds, and blow the horn ”

(Siebert, op. cit., 56).

So  about  the  rank  of  the  set  there is unanimity in the old as in the present literature. From Nagler’s rating of 1843

“ One  of  the  most  beautiful  works  by  Riedinger ”

over Thienemann’s and that by W. Schmidt in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (XXVIII, 507) of 1889 up to count Solms-Laubach’s remark of 1961 considering the engraving of the “Starting Stag” illustrated by him :

Of the preparatory drawings three are dated from 1746 (Th. p. 274, folder I, b to Th. Th. 49 and one not engraved + Schwerdt III, 216, bottom 1 to Th. 60) as well as one from 1750 (Schwerdt, as before, 2 to Th. 56), both the latter as variants.

That  additionally  the  Blue  Rider  Franz  Marc  sucked  nectar  from  it

has been overlooked hitherto. It may be referred to the par force scenery going to the left in front of the watercolor “Ried Castle” of 1914 – riders with spear in the raised right ready to throw it accompanied by two hounds in view of three fallow-deers, of which the foremost one is separated; Holst, see below, ills. 11, p. 29 –

which  should  be  based  upon  the  front  detail  group  here .

As inspired by Ridinger known hitherto only Marc’s woodcut „Riding School after Ridinger“ of 1913 (Lankheit 839) as detail interpretation of the mounted rider as background figure of the third sheet (Th. 608, see its preparatory drawing here in stock per 28,071) of the 1722 Riding School, so Ridinger could be proved here recently already as source for his pictorial “Playing Weasels” of 1911, Hoberg-Janssen with ills., which the 1909/10 lithograph with the same name preceded, together disclosing the knowledge of now just some further Ridinger coppers from quite different sets, namely Th. 181 , 476 , 478 + 479 .

(Christian von Holst, Franz Marc – Pferde, 2003, pp. 166 ff. inside of [‚… the Kick of my Horses‘]).

That the more typical Ridinger foliage finally was not unfamilar to Marc, too, the right group of trees of his pictorial wood interior “The Würm at Pipping” from 1902/03, H.-J. 15 with ills., shows. Shortly, one Ridinger reference to 20^th century painting of highest carat

which  in  this  plurality  has  not  been  seen  till  now .

Offer no. 14,552 / EUR  1380. / Export price EUR  1311. (c. US$ 2116.) + shipping

“  … that I have received the parcel in good order. Very well and professional packed indeed. The litho of Mourot is according to my expectations. The drawing is rare. Colouring most probably same time … ”

(Mr. P. v. d. W., June 26, 2003)