DIETRICH, JOHANN WILHELM ERNST, one of the most distinguished German painters of the 18th century, was born at Weimar in 1712. His father, Johann Georg Dietrich, who was his first instructor, was court-painter at Weimar, and painted portraits, battles, and genre pictures with considerable success. ' In his twelfth year his father sent him to Dresden to study under Alexander Thiele, a celebrated landscape-painter, and he attended at the same time the Academy of Dresden. Dietrich rapidly distinguished himself; and in 1730, when only eighteen years of age, be was presented at Dreadan to Augustus II., king of Poland, who appointed him his court-painter. Ho found at the same time a generous and valuable patron in Count Briihl, for whom he painted much in his house at Grochwitz, since destroyed : the count granted him an annual pension of 400 dollars, or 601, sterling.
In 1741 Dietrich was appointed his court-painter by Augustus III., king of Poland ; and in 1743 ho was sent by the same king to prosecute his studies at Rome, but ho remained there only one year. In 1746 he received an appointment in the picture gallery, with a salary of 400 rix-dollars per annum • and when the Academy of Arts of Dreadeu was established in 1763, Dietrich was appointed one of the professors, with a salary of 600 rix-dollars, and be was at the same time made director of the school of painting in the porcelain manufactory at Meissen. He died at Dresden in 1774, aged 62, and is supposed to have hastened his death by bis incessant application to his art; for, notwithstanding an extremely rapid execution, he was an indefatigable painter, and laboured at his easel with little intermission till within the last few years of his life, when his weak state of health rendered it physically impossible. Dietrich had no original power. He painted
iu various styles, and copied any master with surprising exactness. He was most able however as a landscape-painter ; but his views were generally arbitrary compositions, well coloured, transparent, and effectively lighted. Ha often painted iu imitation of the style of some celebrated master—Everdiogen, Poelemburg, Bergbem, or Claude— and on all occasions the imitations were excellent. He copied also with equal facility the style of Raffaelle, Correggio, Micria, and °static. Ile likewise repeatedly imitated the style of Rembrandt both in paintings and in etchings, especially in religious pieces, but with somewhat less licence as to the costume and the proportions of the human figure. 1 Dietrich painted also many rustic pieces, and pieces in the style and manner of Watteau. Two collections of etchings by him have been published, which are very scarce, especially the first ; the second, con sisting of eighty-coven plates, was published after his death, retouched by and under the direction of Zingg. Some of his etchings are signed 'Dietrich,' and others Dietricy;' the earlier ones are marked with the former name. There are also many prints after his works by other masters.
There are twenty-seven of Dietrich's pictures in the Royal Gallery at Dresden, and there is a good collection of his drawings and sketches in the collection of prints there.
(Meuse', Miscellarteen A rtistichen Inhales; Heineken, Nachricheen von Klinstlern, dc.; and Dictionnaire des Artistes, cl.c.)