Description:

Louis Dieterich
Maryland / Germany, (1841-1922)
Portrait of a young woman with roses on a ruffle collar, 1882
pastel on paper on canvas
signed and dated lower left. In a 19th Century gilt frame.

Biography from the Archives of askART:
A portrait painter, Louis Dieterich was born in Germany on April 6, 1842 and emigrated to the United States about 1883. (The Maryland Archives lists the birth date as 1841). In 1883, he exhibited at the National Academy of Design. Eventually he settled in Baltimore and for many years had a portrait studio there and was active in the Charcoal Club.

One of his more famous paintings is of actor Edwin Booth, an actor and the brother of John Wilkes Booth, who assasinated President Abraham Lincoln. The portrait is in the Hartford County Courthouse and is described as "an admirable likeness of the great tragedian. To Booth's 'wonderful eyes'--those windows of a soul charged with powerful and ever-changing emotions--no representation could do justice; but the artist has been happy in catching one of the great actor's best expressions." (Maryland State Archives)

For several decades, Louis Dieterich was active in West Virginia, where he painted portraits of prominent political leaders including several Governors and U.S. Senators. Many of the portraits were were destroyed in a fire at the statehouse in 1921, but surviving paintings are in the West Virginia State Museum, Elkins College and the West Virginia Historical Art Collection.

Sources include:

John Cuthbert, "Early Art and Artists in West Virginia"

Information submitted May 2005 by Richard Miller, collector of work by the artist. The portraits are signed Dieterich and not Dieterick, a misspelling commonly used. Miller's references are:

Peter Hastings Falk, "Who Was Who in American Art:

"Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers", Glenn B. Opitz, editor.

Maryland State Archives

  • Dimensions: 20 1/2"H x 16"W (stretcher), 29"H x 25"W (frame)
  • Medium: pastel on paper on canvas

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April 26, 2025 11:00 AM EDT
Indianapolis, IN, US

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