“ A  Large  Number  of  Fine  Horses ”

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The Par Force Horses are led onto the Rendezvous. Endless train of saddled horses led by the grooms mostly three by three out of the wood onto the clearing. From right two hunting carriages come along. Etching and engraving. Inscribed: Joh. El. Ridinger del. sculps. et excud. Aug. Vind., otherwise in German as above. 31.2 x 47.9 cm.

Thienemann + Schwarz 51; Weigel, Art Stock Cat., 4a + 16545 (“old now only seldom occurring impressions”, 1847!); Stubbe, Johann Elias Ridinger, 1966, pp. 15 f. – Not in the Silesian Ridinger collection at Boerner XXXIX (1885 !).

“ A large number of fine horses, usually three saddled ones side by side, led by the groom in the center, are on the long train to the rendezvous. There is much life and Ridinger’s master hand knows to bring variation into this life ”

(Thienemann).

Extensive 8-line subtext in German. – Marvelous impression on strong laid paper with wide margins of laterally 4.7-5, above and below 3-4.8 cm. – In the left lateral margin the publisher’s two pricks. In the upper margin a tear reaching up to the platemark backed acid-freely just as some further smaller ones.

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.

Offer no. 15,174 / EUR  1290. / Export price EUR  1226. (c. US$ 1979.) + shipping

“ Thank you Mr. Niemeyer – I will take it! … It should look very nice in my new office. Best regards ”

(Mr. J. R. L., January 6, 2006)