Planten en grassen bij oude wilgenstammen

About this artwork

hoogte 250 mm x breedte 382 mm

Art Historical Context

Created in 1724 by German artist Johann Elias Ridinger, "Planten en grassen bij oude wilgenstammen" offers a delicate study of vegetation clustered around weathered willow trunks. Executed on paper and measuring just 250 by 382 millimeters, the work reflects Ridinger’s precise observational style, developed during the early Enlightenment when natural history illustrations gained scientific as well as artistic value. Ridinger, best known for his detailed etchings and drawings of animals and landscapes, approached flora with the same careful attention he gave to wildlife. The modest scale and paper medium suggest this may have served as a preparatory study or a collector’s print, capturing the textures of grasses and bark through fine line work rather than broad painterly effects. Today the piece invites modern viewers to slow down and notice the quiet complexity of ordinary plants, a reminder of 18th-century curiosity about the natural world that still resonates in museum settings.

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 ...