Johann Elias Ridinger

Johann Elias Ridinger (1698-1769) was a German painter, engraver, draughtsman, printer, and publisher. He is considered among the best German printmakers of his day and is recognized as one of the world’s leading 18th-century artists when it came to the popular aristocratic themes of dogs, horses, and hunting.

Ridinger trained in Ulm with the painter Christoph Resch, but would later move to Augsburg to study under the eminent Johann Falch. Here he also learned the art of engraving from master Georg Phillip Rugendas. During a three-year stint in Regensburg, Ridinger would visit the royal stables almost daily, gradually mastering the horse as a motif. Around 1750, Ridinger established his own printing business in Augsburg, but only a few years later he was drawn away from his artistic output when offered the directorship of Augsburg Statsakademie in 1759.