The Tile Club: Camaraderie and American Plein-Air Painting The Tile Club | Page 72

Frederick Dielman
American, b. Germany, 1847–1935
Born on Christmas Day in Hanover, Germany, Frederick Diel-
man is best-known for his satirical illustrations and allegorical
murals. As a child, his family immigrated to Baltimore, Maryland.
He then graduated from Calvert College, where his father taught
German and music, in 1864. Two years later he became a topo-
graphical engineer, a profession chosen by his parents, for the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, working in Baltimore and Fort Mon-
roe, Virginia. Although he took antique classes at the Maryland
Institute with Charles Yardley Turner, the desire to formally study
art was overwhelming, and in 1872 he left for Germany to train
at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under Wilhelm
von Diez. Thereafter, in 1876, he returned to the United States,
sharing a studio in New York with the landscape painter Harvey
Otis Young.
of American Artists, became a full Academician of the National White Studios (American, 1903–1939), Frederick Dielman,
ca. 1920–1935, photographic print, Library of Congress
Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-73546
ter of Major Henry Washington Benham, in 1883. Dielman also REFERENCES:
Over the next several years, Dielman helped found the Society
Academy of Design, and married Lilla Marion Benham, daugh-
taught at the Academy, becoming its president in 1899, the Art
Students League, City College of New York, and the Cooper
Union. Additionally, he was responsible for providing artwork for
Dear inger, David Bernard. ed. Paintings and Sculpture in the
Collection of the National Academy of Design. Volume 1,
1826–1925. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2004.
magazines such as Scribner’s and Century, and his illustrations can “The International Studio Supplement: American Studio Talk.”
“The Golden Legend,” and “Seven Sonnets”; John Keats’s “The Montgomery, Walter, ed. American Art and American Art
be found in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Divine Tragedy,”
Eve of St. Agnes”; and Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “The Princess: A
Medley.” His mosaic titled “History” adorns the Members Room
at the Library of Congress while his allegorical representation of
The International Studio VII, no. 27 (May 1899): i–iv.
Collections: Essays on Artistic Subjects by the Best Art Writers,
Fully Illustrated with Etchings, Photoetchings, Photogravures,
Phototypes, and Engravings on Steel and Wood by the Most
Celebrated Artists. Vol. II. Boston: E. W. Walker & Co., 1889.
Law is featured above the fireplace in the Special Reading Room. Strahan, Edward. “Frederick Dielman.” The Art Amateur 3,
at the Albany, New York Savings Bank and in the Pennsylvania Photogravures, Phototypes, and Engravings on Steel and Wood
Other murals and mosaics can be found throughout the country
and Iowa state capitol buildings.
66 THE TILE CLUB: Camaraderie and American Plein-Air Painting
no. 3 (August 1880): 50–52.
by the Most Celebrated Artists. Vol. II.