Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich, called Dietricy
A Landscape with Diana and Nymphs
Oil on canvas (relined). 80.7 x 101.6 cm.
Signed and dated lower centre: Dietricy 1754.
The motif of Diana and her retinue in a landscape has long provided artists with the perfect opportunity to paint a number of female nudes in varying poses in an Arcadian scene. The iconography of this motif dates back to the Renaissance, and Dietricy was able to draw on this long tradition for his rendering of the mythological scene in the mid-18th century.
Diana, the goddess of the hunt, is here depicted reclining on a rocky outcrop in the centre of the composition surrounded by her female retainers. The bright lighting and frontal viewpoint identify her as the main protagonist, whilst the nymphs grouped around her are depicted in various classical poses. Dietricy combines the mythological scene with the Arcadian pastoral tradition by depicting a shepherdess with her flock alongside the goddess and her followers.
Dietricy's contemporaries were familiar with the Italian and Netherlandish mythological compositions preceding this depiction, and the artist deliberately referred to the works of his predecessors. An inscription on one of his engravings with a depiction of Diana reads “In Pollemburghs Geschmack” (in the Poelenburgh taste) in reference to the works of the renowned first-generation Utrecht Italianate Cornelis van Poelenburgh. Dietricy borrows from his figural style and landscape composition. For example in his use of the ruins with the weathered rotunda, which is a frequently occurring motif in Poelenburgh's works.
At the time this work was painted in 1754, Dietricy was at the height of a glittering artistic career: He was court painter to August III of Saxony, one of the most magnificent and artistically minded rulers in Europe. He appointed Dietricy inspector of the Royal Painting Galleries, which, with the acquisition of the collection of the Duke of Modena and Reggio, housed all of the classical works from which the artist drew his inspiration.
Provenance
Auctioned by Foster’s, London, 31.5.1833, lot 173. - John Rushout, 2nd Lord Northwick (1770–1859), Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham. - Captain E. G. Spencer Churchill, M. C., Northwick Park. - Auctioned by Christie’s, London, 25.2.1966, lot 109. - Auctioned by Christie’s, London, 9.12.2009, lot 101. - Jack Kilgore & Co, New York (gallery label to verso). - Private collection, England.
Literature
A Catalogue of the Pictures, Works of Art etc. at Northwick Park, 1864, p. 17, no. 125. - Tancred Borenius, The Collection of Pictures at Northwick Park, London 1921. - Petra Schniewind Michel: Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich genannt Dietricy, Munich 2012, p. 98-99, illus. 61.