A Stag in a Copse
  • Johann Elias Ridinger
  • Ulm 1698 - 1767 Augsburg
  • A Stag in a Copse, 1750
  • Watercolour over pencil, on wove paper,
  • signed and dated on the lower left: Joh. Elias Ridinger fec. 1750,
    inscribed below the illustration:
    Diser Hirsch ist Anno 1726 in einem eingestelten Jagen in der Wildfuhr bey / Ober Steinbach in der Pfremig in dem Hohenloischen gefangen worden.
  • 319 × 217 mm

The inscription on this watercolour largely corresponds to the text of entry no. 330 in Georg August W. Thienemann’s catalogue of Ridinger’s graphic works, published in Leipzig in 18561, with the exception that the description of the animal on the print is expanded as follows: Dieser Hirsch an dem das rareste dass er auf beyden Seiten gleich gefleckt ware, ist An(n)o 1726 .....

(literally: This stag, whose rarest quality was his identical markings on both sides, was captured in the year 1726 in a battue near Ober Stenbach in the Pfremig in the Hohenlohe enclosure).

In any case, although the engraving depicts the same animal, this uneven 12-pointer appears reclining and looking to the right. This sheet was first published posthumously as number 88 in the series of copperlates Die Wundersamsten Hirsche (Fig.1).

  1. Georg Aug. Wilh. Thienemann: Leben und Wirken des unvergleichlichen
    Thiermalers und Kupferstechers Johann Elias Ridiger    , Leipzig 1856.