Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Carolus of the Holy Roman Empire governing Prince of Löwenstein Wertheim … etc. … and His Electoral Grace of Palatinate Major-General of the Infantry, also Knight of the Brandenburg Red Eagle Order. On rising dapple to the left with baton in the stretched-out right before general small battle turmoil and deeply staggered landscape with village + town silhouette. Etching and engraving after Johann Christian Fiedler (Pirna 1697 – Darmstadt 1765). Inscribed: JCFiedler pinx. / J. El. Ridinger sculps. A. V. 1751., otherwise in mussel-shaped shield surrounded by military emblems in German as above. 38.9 x 27 cm.

Thienemann (1856) + Schwarz (1910; plate I/XXVI) 835; Coll. Franz Josef Graf von Enzenberg 2622 (“Rare”, 1879); Helbing XXXIV (Works by J. E. and M. E. Ridinger), 1458 (“Very rare”, 1900).

Not  among  the  extensive  Ridinger  inventories

of Weigel, Art Stock Catalogue I-XXVIII (1838/56), Coppenrath (1889/90) + Schwerdt (1928/35) as well as the opulent Ridinger collection Count Faber-Castell (1958) and the hippological collections Anderhub (1963) + Sarasin (1999). Just as then through the decades also here present for the first time.

on heavy laid paper with margin of 1.2-1.7 cm laterally + 2-2.5 cm below + above, here from the rich Ridinger collection of Radulf Count of Castell-Rüdenhausen (1922-2004). – In the white margin upper right in ink “Th 835”.

“ Herewith (Th. 834) now this set (of the ‘Princely Persons on Horseback’) would be completed. Now, however, I own a similar, but larger engraving … Carolus … We give him the number 835 … Also among the drawings there are some of larger size (one presumably belonging to the plate here in pencil in reverse in Augsburg) than the sixteen above, whereupon it seems as if … Ridinger had intended a second set ”

(Thienemann).

One with 37 x 26.3 only minimally smaller one of Louis VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt then indeed added in 1876 by Count Stillfried under no. 1378.

Fiedler, since 1717 prominent as miniaturist and furthered by the court in Brunswick by several years’ stay in Paris together with the promise of subsequent appointment as court painter in Wolfenbüttel, wounded up in Darmstadt on his return in 1724 where in 1726 he advanced to court painter and in 1754 to supreme, cabinet, and court painter and developed himself especially as portraitist.

“ The praised similarity of his portraits is due to sober sharpness of observation and firm drawing … ”

(Thieme-Becker XI [1915], 538 f.).
Offer no. 14,849

“ Received the (original Ridinger printing-)plate yesterday. Much Thanks from a satiesfied customer. You are a True Gentleman … All the Best! L… F. ”

(Mr. L. A. F., November 5, 2003)