Ridé’s engraving with etching and aquatint, “Bathing of young Achilles”, c1795

Ridé (fl.c.1780–1790)

The true title of this print has been trimmed off, but I assume the subject is the “Bathing of young Achilles” (or it is an antique method of disciplining children), c1795, after the design by Jean Guillaume Moitte (c1772–1817 [Rijksmuseum]; 1746–1810 [The Met]), published by Marie François Drouhin (fl1790-1813)

Engraving, dotted engraving, etching and aquatint on laid paper, trimmed to image borderline and without the separately printed blue border.

Size: (sheet) 21.5 x 40.3 cm

Inscribed in the plate below the image borderline: (left) D … [?] iné par Mr. Moitte. Sculpteur”; (right) “Gravé par Mr Ridé”

Rijksmuseum has several other prints from the same series, see: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.453538 and http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.452769

Condition: crisp and well-printed impression with very little wear to the plate, but the sheet shows signs of handling, especially on the text line and there are remnants and thinness from previous mounting (verso); otherwise the print is in good condition (i.e. there are no stains, holes, folds, significant abrasions or foxing).

I am selling this velvety rich print referencing the style of antique bas-reliefs and a style famously adopted by Wedgewood for their Jasperware ceramics, for AU$103 (currently US$81.28/EUR69.19/GBP62.48 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this classically inspired print, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

I must say that finding information about the printmaker who has inscribed his name on this plate as “Mr Ridé” is not easy—especially since my favourite online research source, The British Museum, is displaying an apology for having technical difficulties at the moment.

Even the usually dependable sources such as Arthur M Hind’s (1923) “A History of Engraving & Etching” let me down as there is no mention of this artist. Nevertheless, Nagler in “Kunstler-Lexicon” advises that Ridé lived in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Moreover, J Herbert Slater (1912) in my very weary looking volume, “Engravings and Their Value”, suggests that Ridé was “active from about 1780 to 1790, during which period he produced a considerable number of prints, chiefly portraits many of which are in colours” (pp. 569–70). For those who like completely unhelpful information, Slater proposes—mindful that he is referring to an art market in 1912—that Ridé’s print, “Apollo and the Muses, after Boizot”, is good value at 14 shillings.