Ridinger, Martin Elias (1730 Augsburg 1780). Ludovjcus VIII. D. G. Landgravius Hassiæ-D(armstadiæ). Princeps Hersfeldiæ, Comes in … Nidda, Schaumburgo, Isenburgo et Budinga etc. Sacræ Cæsareæ ac Regiæ Hungaricæ et Bohemicæ Apostol. Majestatis Suppremus Campo Mareschallus … . On his proverbial dapple with baton rested on the right thigh, riding at calm walk towards a drawing up of forces in hilly landscape to the left. Etching + engraving after Georg Adam Eger (Murrhardt 1727 – 1808). Inscribed: G. A. Eger Serenissimi Landgr. Pictor, pinxit. / Mart. El. Ridinger sculps. Aug. Vind., otherwise as above with the rich escutcheon held by lion shield-bearers in the center. 37 x 26.3 cm.

Thienemann-Stillfried (1876) + Schwarz (1910) 1378; Reich auf Biehla 280 ( “Fine sheet … Extremely rare”, 1894 ! ); Siebert, Kranichstein (1969), ills. p. 62; Ridinger catalogue Darmstadt (1999) VI.25 with ills.; Siebert-Weitz, Ridinger – (Pictures on the Hunt in Hesse-Darmstadt) (1999), pp. 52 f. with illustration.

Not  among  the  extensive  Ridinger  inventories

of Weigel, Art Stock Catalogue I-XXVIII (1838/56), Silesian Ridinger collection at Boerner XXXIX (1885), Coppenrath (1889/90), Helbing XXXIV (Works by J. E. and M. E. Ridinger; 1900) + 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 surrounding margin mostly 8 mm wide, here from the rich Ridinger collection of Radulf Count of Castell-Rüdenhausen (1922-2004), from whose hand the pencil annotation “Th.St, 1378. Very rare” in the white margin lower right presumably origins. – A slight foxing within the image barely perceptible and only recognizable in the upper wide white platemark as well as like in spots in the left white plate + paper margin.

“ A sheet which by size and form follows on the (somewhat smaller sized) set of Princely Persons on Horseback ”

(Count Stillfried). And by this on the equestrian portrait of Prince Charles of Löwenstein-Wertheim sold here recently, still introduced per 835 by Thienemann himself with the words

“ Herewith (Th. 834) now this set (of the ‘Princely Persons on Horseback’) would be completed. Now, however, I own a similar, but larger engraving (by Joh. Elias R. after Joh. Christian Fiedler) … 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. ”

„ The equestrian portrait of Louis VIII attaches to a … set of princely persons on horseback. While the other 16 depictions (of the basic set) have been both drawn and also engraved by Johann Elias Ridinger, the equestrian portrait of the hunter landgrave is based on a painting by Georg Adam Eger (like for the mentioned other Löwenstein-Wertheim addition one by Fiedler). Possibly our sheet engraved by Martin Elias Ridinger was created at the same time as the (four) plates of the ‘Wondrous Stags’ (Th. 318 f. + 339 f.) engraved after Eger, thus about the middle of the 1760s “ (1763/64 + 67/68)

(Stefan Morét in Catalogue Darmstadt).
Offer no. 14,850 / EUR  945. / Export price EUR  898. (c. US$ 1420.) + shipping

Also  see
Johann  Christian  Fiedler’s  large-sized  full-length  portrait
in  mezzotint  by  Johann  Jacob  Haid

“ That would be great! I will send out a check tomorrow for … Followed by a payment in July then one in August. Thank you for your flexability. Kindest Regards ”

(Mr. L. A. F., June 22, 2004)

The  Cream  of  the  Day