DIETRICH, CHRISTIAN WILHELM ERNST (I; I 2— ' 7 74 ) , German painter and engraver, was born at Weimar on Oct. 31,1712, and died at Dresden on April 24, 1774. He was taught by his father, Johann George, painter of miniatures to the court and was then sent to Dresden to work under Alexander Thiele, the landscape painter. Augustus II., king of Saxony, sent him to Italy and the Netherlands where he learnt to imitate the masters of the previous century with amazing fidelity. At Dresden there are pictures acknowledged to be his, bearing the fictitious dates of 1636 and 1638 and the name of Rembrandt. His "Itinerant Musi cians," in the manner of Ostade, is in the National Gallery, Lon don. In 1741 he was appointed court painter to Augustus III. at Dresden, with an annual salary conditional on the production of four pictures a year and there are 52 of his canvases and panels in one room at the Dresden Museum. A collection of his engrav ings at the British Museum, produced on the lines of earlier men, such as Ostade and Rembrandt, reveal both spirit and skill. Dietrich, after his return from Italy generally signed himself "Dietericij." He was director of painting at the Meissen porcelain factory and professor of the Dresden academy of arts.