The Arrival of the Princely Carriage at the Starting Point of the Hunt

Johann Elias Ridinger

ca. 1756 · Pen and brown ink, gray wash, over a sketch in graphite or black chalk. Framing line in pen and brown ink (lower and right edge) and graphite (upper edge) · Drawings and Prints

This drawing is the model for one etching in a series of sixteen by Ridinger called The Coursing Hunt for Stag. This type of hunt, which lasted for hours, consisted of large parties of riders on horseback with packs of hounds, and was extremely popular with the European aristocracy in the eighteenth century. Here, Prince Wolf Freiherr von Metternich and his wife, their pet dog, and their two attendants arrive in a carriage drawn by six stallions and accompanied by the driver, outriders, and various footmen. Dispersed in the park around them are the hunters awaiting their arrival to begin, while in the middle ground a rider with a whip, perhaps the master of the hounds, heads toward the packs to get them ready.

Artist

Johann Elias Ridinger

Date

ca. 1756

Medium

Pen and brown ink, gray wash, over a sketch in graphite or black chalk. Framing line in pen and brown ink (lower and right edge) and graphite (upper edge)

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, C. G. Boerner Gift, 2008