4050 - Christian Dietricy, The Bathing Nymph

Christian Dietricy, The Bathing Nymph naked nymph at the edge of a pool in a rock grotto, surrounded by all manner of creatures and people, Linck catalogue no. 136, high-contrast etching on thin handmade paper, inscribed on the plate below the image ‘Dietricy Dd. Aquia fort. A 1741, 6 October”, minimal damage, image dimensions approx. 19.5 x 28 cm, sheet dimensions approx. 22.5 x 31 cm. Artist information: actually Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich, also known as Ditrich or Christian Guillaume Ernest Dietricy, Dietrici, Dietricij or Dietericy, German painter, draughtsman, etcher and copperplate engraver (1712, Weimar - 1774, Dresden), initially a pupil of his father, the court painter Johann Georg Dietrich in Weimar, from 1724 trained as a painter and etcher under Johann Alexander Thiele in Dresden; from 1728 worked with Thiele in Arnstadt, later returned to work in Weimar; in 1738 returned to Dresden, where he received patronage from Heinrich Graf Brühl and Carl Heinrich von Heinecken; undertook a study trip to Holland; appointed court painter in 1741; travelled to Italy in 1743 at the king’s expense; adopted the artistic name ‘Dietricy’ following this trip to Italy; appointed curator of the Royal Picture Gallery in 1748; was friends with Anton Graff, Adrian Zingg, Daniel Chodowiecki and Johann Georg Wille; from 1764, Director of the Meissen School of Drawing and, in 1765, Professor at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts; honorary memberships of the academies in Augsburg, Bologna and Copenhagen, Source: Thieme-Becker, Saur “Bio-Bibliographical Encyclopaedia of Artists”, AKL, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Müller-Singer, Müller-Klunzinger, Seubert, Nagler and Wikipedia.