The Industrious Hunter, in Spring

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 gazes at his bounty of deer, rabbits, and other birds.