A Stag Caught by a Pack of Hounds

Here we see a pack of hunting dogs bringing down a stag. As a young artist, Johan Elias Ridinger had spent years witnessing such events at aristocratic courts. Though it is unlikely that he drew this scene during an actual hunt, he tapped his deep experience of such moments to vividly imagine and recreate the action. Here, near the end of his own life, he matched his handling of his pencil and pen to the violent energy of the event. By the time Ridinger made this drawing, he was considered the leading maker of prints and drawings of animals in all of Germany. When producing such images for public consumption, he worked in a meticulous, polished style, but here we see the fury that he could bring to his art when working to satisfy his own needs.