Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). The Spring of the Hounds. The pack leader defending the hare against three other greyhounds and a waterhound by a boulder. Washed brush drawing over pencil. Inscribed with pale pencil inside the subject below left: Joh. Elias Ridinger inv. et del. 438-440 x 336 (subject size 426-429 x 336) mm.

to sheet 1 – Thienemann 105, illustrated in Blüchel, Die Jagd, II, p. 79 – of the “Four Seasons of the Hounds” (“Especially excellent are the sheets with the hounds … “, Nagler) supposed for the early 40s.

in reverse to sheet 1 – Thienemann 105, illustrated in Blüchel, Die Jagd, II, p. 79 – of the “Four Seasons of the Hounds” (“Especially excellent are the sheets with the hounds … “, Nagler) supposed for the early 40s.

On strong, but not heavy laid paper with watermark “IV” (Jean Villedary?, paper mill in Angoulême prospering for 150 years as together associate for Dutch mills, where his IV/I V e.g. appears as counter-mark to C & I HONIG, but generally was also abused as pirated mark like other marks, too, standing for first qualities. We find the “IV” as a contemporary mark in the graphic Ridinger œuvre in many cases, among the drawings e.g. on his 1723 signed one “Alexander the Great 326 at the Hyphasis in India” present here and as monogram “I V” on the 1762 drawing “Wild Ducks stalked by Wild Cats” in Augsburg (Biedermann, Master Drawings of German Baroque, 1987, no. 165). And Villedary’s complete mark “IV ILLEDARY” on the 1736 Good Sport drawing by the younger Georg Philipp Rugendas present here per offer no. 15,182.

Of best condition except for a pinhead-small hole and, predominantly at the back, seven marginal traces of former mounting in spots on a sheet removed only by now (on this by old hand in italics as inscription in the center “Coursing” and on the right “Ridinger”). In the center of the narrow white subfield of the drawing itself a “20.” in pencil as supposed inventory number of a former owner and therefore mark of origin of a more comprehensive collection of drawings.

Contrary to the etching the pack leader’s tip of the tail a little less formed and the waterhound’s left foreleg concealed under the belly.

To the complex of the hounds’ Four Seasons Thienemann (1856, portfolio 2, e, page 275) was only acquainted with the likewise washed drawing of the Summer sheet (Th. 106) from the Weigel stock, which is, however, not anymore in Weigel’s Catalogue of the Bequeathed Drawings and Prints of 1869 (see there pp. 197 ff.). Then there was, also to the Summer sheet, the likewise large-sized and washed skeleton study to its stag in the “Fine Collection of Drawings and Engravings of Joh. Elias Ridinger from the Possession of a Wellknown Collector” sold by Wawra in Vienna in 1890 (no. 67). And 1900 in Helbing’s huge Ridinger catalogue (Works by J. E. and M. E. Ridinger, XXXIV, 1547) the „brilliant pen and ink drawing in outline“ of the same size to the Fall sheet. Here finally known, too, the equally large one of Winter. And the

Extraordinarily charming finally the duplication of the master’s working process on the transfer to the copper plate in the form of the already mentioned red chalking and tracing, the latter down to sub-parts as not used generally. By this, however, allowing the that wanted, as famous as precious “view over the shoulder”.
Offer no. 28,878  /  price on request

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(Mrs. C. C., March 7, 2003)