Johann Friedrich Dietler

He was born in Solothurn, Switzerland, on February 4, 1804. His father was also an artist and he started painting in the family workshop. His first professional art instruction came from Karl Germann (c.1790/93-?), a local drawing master.

From 1822 to 1833 he was in Paris to continue his training under Antoine-Jean Gros, and copied the Old Masters in the Louvre. He later worked under Léopold Robert in Venice, Italy from 1834-1835. [1] After spending some time in Geneva, he finally settled in Berne, where he worked primarily as a portrait painter and was very popular among the patricians there, as well as in Solothurn, Freiburg and Basel. He often painted from small photographs of his subjects, but was very concerned that photography would put portrait painters out of work.

For several years, he taught at the Berne Art School, where his students included Ernst Stückelberg and Friedrich Walthard. He died in Berne on May 4, 1874.

Attribution:

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bryan, Michael (1886). "Dietler, Johann Friedrich". In Graves, Robert Edmund (ed.). Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers (A–K). I (3rd ed.). London: George Bell & Sons.

Media related to Johann Friedrich Dietler at Wikimedia Commons

• "Dietler, Johann Friedrich". SIKART Lexicon on art in Switzerland.