Lot 1249 Dα

Dietrich was already in his youth one of the favourite painters of King August II of Saxony. As such he received in 1743 a royal grant and travelled to Italy. He returned in 1744 and settled in Dresden where he was first director of the picture gallery and afterwards became professor at the Dresden Roayal Academy. Known under the name of Dietricy he was one of the main exponents of the artistic eclecticism of the time. His paintings cover a wide range of subjects drawn in the styles of the Dutch, Italian or French schools. Nonetheless, Winckelmann called him 'the Raphael of landscape'. Even if slightly exaggerated this sentence acknowledged Dietrich's original training as a landscape painter.
The present composition depicting the waterfall at Tivoli with idyllic figural scenes testifies to Dietrich's virtuosity and may have been produced after his return to Dresden. The soft modelling of landscape, the dry harmony of the natural elements, amongst which architecture is not more than a pretext, as well as the cool pictorial light favour the idea that the picture was painted after his trip to Italy.