Representation Copy
in Half Vellum with Green Marbled Covers
in correspondingly Marbled De Luxe Slipcase
The SUITE of the
PREPARATORY DRAWINGS
with their ERRORS
as the final touch addition to the copper set
Ridinger, Johann Elias. (Representation of the Fair Game with their Tracks and Traces, Goings, Get-offs, Turns, Flight, and other Marks more added … drawn from Nature) / Abbildung der Jagtbaren Thiere mit derselben angefügten Fährten und Spuren, Wandel, Gänge, Absprünge, Wendungen, Widergängen, Flucht und anderer Zeichen mehr. Set of preparatory drawings in brush, chalk and graphite from 1737/39. FULL-SIZE FACSIMILE EDITION in four colors. Ed. by Karl Sälzle. 1980. Large fol. 77 pp., 1 l. incl. plts. With
32 plates incl. the father’s portrait in mezzotint
by Johann Jacob Ridinger of 1767 & title of the work’s printed edition of 1740 ( ask for two unequalled copies and separate sheets of that ). Orig. marbled h. vellum with vellum-corners in uniform h. cloth slipcase.
(Thienemann p. 275, i.) – Text (in German) in red & black. – Accompanied by Ridinger’s original “Preliminary Report” – the print of its headline & opening initial in red as not provable here presumably an inconsiderate adaptation to the red headlines of the editor’s contributions – the
noble first-time edition
of the set of drawings furnished with Weigel provenance
to the set of etchings Th. 162-185, representing 26 animals in their picturesque environment together with their partly in greater detail reproduced traces in life size (with exception of lion and tiger, the latter recte “maybe a jaguar”, Th.), followed by summarized small tracks on three plates. The lower margin fields for the life size traces with the drawings themselves partly remained empty or incomplete and were executed on separate sheets only. So in 11 cases here collected on 7 plates.
Present edition of the preparatory drawings documents at the same time the
variants & errors
the knowledge of which along with additional optical pleasure qualifies the set as indispensable complement to the definitive work.
One pictorial variant each to the 20-point-stag Th. 166 (plates X & VII, the text of which erroneously interchanged; the print available here) & to the otter Th. 178 (the latter “brought into a unfavorable other position” in the etching). In the drawings still “greatly misrepresented” roebuck, lynx and beaver (Th. 171, 172, 177), whereas the tomcat (Th. 180) more naturally depicted in the drawing is much changed in the copper. In contrast more carefully executed there, however, the mountains which are outlined only on the drawing.
Of greatest evidence interest finally
hare (Th. 175) and badger (Th. 179). While with the former the erroneous attribution of the symbols for fore & hind leg and solid & soft ground, as remained still unrectified in proofs, yet has been healed in at least one (and namely present one) by engraved little cover sheets, a similar lapse with the latter was missed by the master himself for now, too, and found entrance into literature only here. So the trace of the badger is designated in the drawing for fore and hind by “Fus” (foot) instead of “Lauff” (leg). This mistake seems to have been corrected already in proofs, yet at least not in one present one. And in this neither per little cover sheets. See on this in great detail issue 18 of the Ridinger publications here as the description of one complete copy including just those two present proofs, which with respect to further characteristics should have been Ridinger’s personal copy.
So unknown-interesting thus Ridinger can be. And
so splendidly beautiful & instructive
then present first-time publication of the drawings
to one of the important ones of the sets
in regard of hunting & natural history
as representation edition in half vellum
with green marbled covers in correspondingly marbled de luxe slipcase .
To which nonetheless – then original price adequate 700 DM = 358 € ! – applies what George Bernard Shaw hitting the bull’s eye sarcastically attested to paintings:
“ If more than 10% of the people like a painting ,
you can be sure it’s bad. ”
“ The Sälzle ” was ultimately sold off by the publisher . Well then .
But by which in regard of Ridinger the matter doesn’t rest in no way as stated here for the first time.
For no less a man than this the marten-weasel-sheet from this served together with two further Ridinger coppers as inspiration for his painting “Playing Weasels” of 1911, Hoberg-Jansen 144 with ills.
In such a way known with Ridinger as source till now only Marc’s woodcut “Riding School after Ridinger” of 1913 (Lankheit 839) as detail interpretation of the background figure of the mounted rider of the third sheet (Th. 608, see its preparatory drawing traded here) of the 1722 Riding School annotated by literature with
“ Illuminating
that Marc with his quite intimate knowledge of art history
turns to just these masters of the presentation of the horse (Delacroix and Ridinger)
of the 19th and 18th centuries resp. as models ”
(Christian von Holst, Franz Marc – Pferde, 2003, pp. 166 ff. within [‘… the Hoofbeats of my Horses’]).
For already his painting “Playing Weasels” from 1911, preceded 1909/10 by the lithograph of the same name, betrays the knowledge of several Ridinger coppers from entirely different sets. Marc shows two weasels, of which the one in the tree, bowed over a bough, looks down upon the one sitting in raised attitude on the ground. The trees besides of an eccentricity which he uses in this ostensible density in the painted œuvre only in the two “Acts below Trees”, H.-J. 143, of the same year. For the thematic initial spark Ridinger’s small-sized sheet “The Weasels” (Th. 479) from 1740 as sheet 89 of the set Design of Several Animals stands. Here, too, two of them playing, yet both on the ground and in an utterly different context. The latter Marc split up. And took the attitude of the two animals from sheet 86 of the set, the two pine martens Th. 476 (additionally available here in fine later coloring and the companion piece with the two beech martens Th. 475). The young one of which hangs across a bough of equally low height as with Marc and looks down at the mother standing on the hind paws against the trunk luring with a captured bird. “Playing Squirrels” as sheet 88 (Th. 478) shows the same situation, only with the difference of a further one in the tree, too, but keeping a little aloof and not involved in the play. Yet the bizarre tree – and as such also Sälzle characterizes it expressly in present 1980 edition of the preparatory drawings – as rather rare also for Ridinger he took from the “Trace of a Marten / Trace of the Weasel” (Th. 181) with the same attitude of the marten in the tree and the, however, neutrally shown weasel on the ground.
Thus Marc designed his “Playing Weasels” just so by means of divers Ridinger references as the latter on his part composed his “Amusement of the Shepherds” after Watteau, Th.-Stillfried 1397, from four models of the Frenchman. That finally also the more typical trees of Ridinger’s were not unfamiliar to Marc, the right group of trees of his painterly forest interior “The Würm at Pipping” from 1902/03, H.-J. 15 with ills., demonstrates. But also the par force scenery on the watercolor “Ried Castle” from 1914 – Holst, ills. 11, p. 29 – stands for a further example of Marc’s occupation with Ridinger,
which in this plurality has been missed till now .
Offer no. 28,595 / EUR 270. / export price EUR 257. (c. US$ 346.) + shipping
„ … Toll, die Verbindung der Kunst mit berühmten Männern der Geschichte. Dazu die qualitative Aufmachung … “
(Frau U. K., 2. Januar 2010)