Anton Dietrich


Anton Dietrich was a :Category:German painters|German painter.
At 14, Dietrich came to the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, where he was student of sculptors, including Ernst Julius Hähnel. Despite the political unrest, in 1848 Dietrich made his debut at an exhibition of the Academy with a picture.
That same year he became a student of the painter Eduard Bendemann. Dietrich moved after a short time together with Leonhard Gey in the studio of Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld. In spite of positive reviews, Dietrich was unable to make a living as a freelance artist, so he supported himself by working as an illustrator for various publishers and art dealers.
Dietrich learned fresco techniques from Karl von Binzer and settled down in Weimar. There Dietrich discovered wall painting, which was henceforth to be a focus in his art. A short time later Dietrich became a master student of Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld in Dresden. One of his first great works was Rudolf von Habsburg on the corpse Ottokar of Bohemia which was premiered at an exhibition and which earned him an academic travel grant.
Through this generous financial support Dietrich was allowed formative years in Düsseldorf in 1859/60. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. From there he launched a great trip to Italy, including Venice and Rome, traveling as far as Naples. On his way home he stopped for several weeks stay in Munich and went from there back to Dresden in 1865.
Dietrich founded a studio in Dresden, in which one of the first works of his series on Otto the Great was born. Photographs of these pictures were soon circulated in large quantities. In 1868, Dietrich was commissioned to embellish the Gothic Hall of the Kreuzschule in Dresden with historical frescoes. After four years, in 1872, Dietrich ended this work successfully. Another commission took Dietrich until 1878 to Johanneum after Zittau, where he created the fresco Paul preaches at the Areopagus in Athens. The basis for this work was the book of Acts 17, verses 22-23. Dietrich created the image on the gable of the Saxony Ministry of Finance building built in 1894. It represents Saxonia surrounded by arts and government revenues.
Dietrich took a position at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig, where he died at the age of 71 years on 4 August 1904.

Selected works