Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich

Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich (October 30, 1712 – April 23, 1774) was a German painter and art administrator. In his own works, he was adept at imitating many earlier artists, but never developed a style of his own.

He was born at Weimar, where he was brought up early to the profession of art by his father Johann Georg, then painter of miniatures to the court of the duke. Having been sent to Dresden to perfect himself under the care of Johann Alexander Thiele, he had the good fortune to finish in two hours, at the age of eighteen, a picture which attracted the attention of the king of Saxony. Augustus II was so pleased with Dietrich's readiness of hand that he gave him means to study abroad, and visit in succession the chief cities of Italy and the Netherlands. There he learned to copy and to imitate masters of the previous century with a versatility that was truly surprising. Johann Joachim Winckelmann, to whom he had been recommended, did not hesitate to call him the Raphael of landscape. Yet in this branch of his practice he merely imitated Salvator Rosa and Allaert van Everdingen.

He was more successful in aping the style of Rembrandt, and numerous examples of this habit may he found in the galleries of St. Petersburg, Vienna and Dresden. At Dresden, indeed, there are pictures acknowledged to be his, bearing the fictitious dates of 1636 and 1638, and the name of Rembrandt. Among Dietrich's cleverest reproductions we may account that of Ostade's manner in the Itinerant Singers at the National Gallery. His skill, in catching the character of the later masters of Holland is shown in candlelight scenes, such as the Squirrel and the Peep-Show at St. Petersburg, where we are easily reminded of Godfried Schalcken. Dietrich tried every branch of art except portraits, painting Italian and Dutch views alternately with scripture scenes and still life.

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