The Industrious Hunter, in Spring
Medium
Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown and gray wash, over graphite, on laid ivory paper
Dimensions
31 × 25 cm (12 1/4 × 9 7/8 in.)
Classification
pen and ink drawings
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
222578
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Johann Elias Ridinger, a prolific Augsburg etcher of animals, set up his own printing house in the 1720s, eventually creating a market for his realistic portraits and allegories that stretched across Europe and into Britain. Hunting scenes, including both animals and aristocratic figures, were one of his specialties. This drawing, Spring, and its pendant Winter, come from a series depicting hunters across the four seasons. The hunter portrayed here holds a heron and a rifle as he contentedly gaz...
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 ...