Dietrich was sent to
Dresden to perfect himself under the care of
Johann Alexander Thiele. At the age of eighteen he finished a painting in two hours, which attracted the attention of the king of
Saxony,
Augustus II. He was so pleased with Dietrich's work that he gave him means to study abroad, and visit the chief cities of
Italy and the
Netherlands. There he learned to copy and to imitate masters of the previous century with a versatility that was truly surprising.
Johann Joachim Winckelmann, to whom he had been recommended, called him the
Raphael of
landscape. His landscapes were frequently based on the works of
Salvator Rosa and
Allaert van Everdingen. He was also 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 there are pictures acknowledged to be his, bearing the fictitious dates of 1636 and 1638, and the name of Rembrandt. Among Dietrich's reproductions of
Ostade's manner is the
Itinerant Singers at the National Gallery. Dietrich tried every branch of art except
portraits, painting Italian and Dutch views alternately with
scripture scenes and
still life. He also created multiple
engravings, a collection of which are at the
British Museum and are inspired by Ostade and Rembrandt. In 1741 he was appointed court painter to
Augustus III at Dresden, with an annual salary of 400
thalers, conditional on the production of four cabinet pictures a year. This condition likely accounts for the presence of fifty-two of the master's panels and canvases in one of the rooms at the Dresden museum. In 1746, he was appointed inspector of galleries. Dietrich, though popular and probably the busiest artist of his time, never produced anything of his own. Dietrich, after his return from the Peninsula, generally signed himself Dieterich, and with this signature most of his extant pictures are inscribed. == Later years and death ==