perfect himself under the care of
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 learnt to copy and
to imitate masters of the previous century with a versatility truly
surprising. 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 Everdingen. He was more
successful in aping the style of Rembrandt, and numerous examples of
this habit may be 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. In
1741 he was appointed court painter to Augustus III. at Dresden, with an
annual salary of 400 thalers (L60), conditional on the production of
four cabinet pictures a year. This condition, no doubt, accounts for the
presence of fifty-two of the master's panels and canvases in one of the
rooms at the Dresden museum. Dietrich, though popular and probably the
busiest artist of his time, never produced anything of his own; and his
imitations are necessarily inferior to the originals which he affected
to copy. His best work is certainly that which he gave to engravings. A
collection of these at the British Museum, produced on the general lines
of earlier men, such as Ostade and Rembrandt, reveal both spirit and
skill. Dietrich, after his return from the Peninsula, generally signed
himself "Dietericij," and with this signature most of his extant
pictures are inscribed. He died at Dresden, after he had successively
filled the important appointments of director of the school of painting
at the Meissen porcelain factory and pro