30.10.1712 – 23.04.1774

German painter and graphic Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich was born October 30, 1712 in Weimar in the family of a successful artist Johann Georg Dietrich, who became the first teacher of the future artist. The young man continued his education with the famous Saxon landscape painter Johann Thiele and was introduced to the court of Elector Frederick Augustus I. The Saxon ruler, like his heir, Friedrich August II, was a great connoisseur of art and patrons of art. However, in the court collection there were no paintings by Russian artists, since Dutch, Italian and French painters of the previous century were in fashion. Thanks to his ability to imitate the old masters in 1731, Dietrich became a court painter in Dresden. I signed my paintings with the name Ditrisi.

In the main exposition of the Voronezh Regional Art Museum. I.N. Kramskoy presented a picture of the artist called “Waterfall in the Mountains.” This landscape, which includes the figures of people: a girl with a basket and two young men. Young people are near a picturesque waterfall, on the top of the mountain towering majestic ruins of the castle. The picture is made in subdued tones, light-silvery and buff-brown tones are intertwined with other natural shades. This coloristic decision was typical of Dutch painting, which, perhaps, imitated the master.

In the last years of his life, Christian Dietrich served as director of the painting school at the Meissen porcelain factory and teacher at the Dresden Academy of Arts. The artist died in Dresden in 1774.