Adelheid Dietrich
The "flower city" of Erfurt produced Adelheid Dietrich, one of the most outstanding flower painters of the 19th century. Her paintings, mostly flowers as still lifes, show her entire mastery in the realistic depiction of the materiality and light of the transient beauty of nature.
After nature: the flower painter Adelheid Dietrich
Adelheid Dietrich painted "according to nature" - this fact seems to be so important to the self-confident artist that she even placed it in front of the signature on the right, discreetly placed in the shadow of the stone bench: „n.(ach) d.(er) N.(atur) gem.(alt) von Adelheid Dietrich. 1864“
Thus it can be concluded that the artist went out at least once, in view of the rapidly fading flower splendor, but more likely several times, to collect a summer bouquet and bring it into her studio as a direct object of study. So quickly wilts just the poppy, which Dietrich here moves to the center of the bouquet and which, thanks to her artistry, now continues to bloom for over 150 years!
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Adelheid Dietrich (1827-1891)
Little is known about the biographical circumstances of the flower painter from Erfurt. Only some time ago (2004/05), with an exhibition of her enduring work at the Angermuseum Erfurt, new attention was also paid to her almost forgotten person ("Ernestine Wendel and Adelheid Dietrich. Two 19th century flower painters from Erfurt").
It is certain that she was taught by her father Eduard Dietrich (1803-1877), who had been working as a painter and art professor at the Royal Gymnasium in Erfurt since 1830. Since the father himself was trained at the Berlin Academy, it is obvious that it is also through his mediation succeeds in 1846, at the XXXV Art Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts Berlin, a series of still lifes of the only 19-year-old daughter to place.
Since Erfurt has belonged to the Kingdom of Prussia since 1802, interrupted until 1815 by Napoleonic occupation, it is certainly several tributes to the royal house, for example on the occasion of the silver wedding of King Frederick William IV (1848) or the anniversary of the reign over the hometown (1852), which make the artist better known.
At the Berlin exhibition in 1864, one of her still lifes was purchased with the generous royal purchasing budget. The newspapers of the time reported and passed consistently positive judgments on Dietrich's art. In the review of the XLV. Kunstausstellung der Königlichen Akademie der Künste in Berlin 1866, for example, states:
"Adelheid Dietrich hat die Ausstellung außer mit zwei ihrer kleinen, allerliebsten Blumenstückchen „Herbstblumen in Tyrol“ und „Thüringer Sommerblumenstrauß“, die bei aller porzellanartigen Glätte doch durch die fast mikroskopische Treu der Naturnachahmung Erstaunen erregen, noch mit einem Fruchtstück „Trauben und Pfirsiche aus Südtyrol“ beschickt, in welcher sich eine achtenswerthe künstlerische Freiheit offenbart." (in: Die Dioskuren. 11. 1866)
By the 1860s at the latest, the Erfurt painter had firmly established herself as a fruit and flower painter in Germany. Her regular participation in the important academy exhibitions in Berlin and Dresden as well as exhibitions in Munich, Cologne, Würzburg, Bremen, Kassel, Vienna and Solothurn brought her works into renowned collections. Artist reference books and conversation encyclopedias shortly before the turn of the century name the artist as one of the leaders in her field.
