DIETRICH, an eminent battle-painter, was born at Düsseldorf in 1799. The love of his art seems to have been strong from his earliest boyhood. The descriptions of warlike encounters in Homer, Tasso, and Ariosto were the favourite readings of his school-days, and furnished subjects for his first attempts in sketching. That he might become thoroughly intimate with military scenes, he volunteered into the Prussian army in 1828, and served for a year. The next two years were devoted to study in the Academy of Arts in his native town. He then placed himself under the tuition of Peter Hess at Munich, and with the aid of that great battle-painter began to develop his own peculiar style of art. His pictures were executed with a rapidity that left no time for faithful design and elaborate finish. Yet they were full of spirited figures, boldly drawn, and strikingly coloured. In 1827 they had obtained for him the patronage of the painter Cornelius, and of Ludwig I, King of Bavaria. By the former he was employed to execute on the arcade of the Hofgarten three frescoes, representing the scenes from Bavarian history of "The Storming of the Turkish Entrenchment at Belgrade in 1717," "The Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube," and "The Granting of the Bavarian Constitution by Maximilian Joseph I in 1818." For the latter he painted "The Battle of Saarbrück," and "The Departure of the Poles from their Fatherland." Among his other important historical pieces are "The Death of Gustavus Adolphus," and "The Great Camp in 1838 at Augsburg." Monten died in 1843. (See Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers.)