Stags in a Landscape
early to mid-18th century
Medium
Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash
Dimensions
9 3/4 × 13 1/4 in. (24.8 × 33.7 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harry G. Sperling Fund, 1974
Accession Number
1974.110
Tags
Art Historical Context
Johann Elias Ridinger’s *Stags in a Landscape* captures a quiet moment in nature with remarkable sensitivity. Created in the early to mid-18th century, this drawing depicts several deer moving through a wooded setting, their forms gently highlighted against a backdrop of trees. Ridinger, known for his keen observation of wildlife, brings the animals to life through precise linework and subtle tonal variations. The artist employed pen and brown ink with brush and brown wash, a technique that allows both crisp detail in the stags’ antlers and coats and soft, atmospheric depth in the surrounding...
About the Artist
Johann Elias Ridinger · 1698–1767
Johann Elias Ridinger (1698–1767) was born in Ulm into an artistic family, the son of scribe and artist Johann Daniel Ridinger and Regina Catharina Miller. He received his initial training in Ulm under the painter Christoph Resch, who instructed him in perspective, geometry, and architecture while assigning preparatory tasks like painting wax models. Around 1713, Ridinger moved to Augsburg, where ...