Dietrich Langko

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Dietrich Langko (1 June 1819 – 8 November 1896) was a German landscape painter, best known for his winter scenes. He came from a modest background and started as a stage painter in Hamburg after finishing primary school. He loved landscapes and took private weekly lessons from Jacob Gensler. His first paintings were made near the Elbe estuaries. In 1832 he joined the Hamburger Künstlerverein. With Gensler's help he won a scholarship in 1840 to study at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. In Munich he joined the circle of painters around Christian Morgenstern, another Hamburg artist. Although he studied there, his main influence came from Albert Zimmermann, whose private painting school in Ebersberg he attended for several summers. By the end of the 1840s he was asked to participate in exhibitions by the Kunstverein München. In 1851 he went on a study trip to Paris with Carl Ebert, Eduard Schleich and Carl Spitzweg. In 1869 Schleich organized a large exhibition at the Glaspalast, which was a major breakthrough for Langko. His landscapes later covered both the Bavarian Oberland and his native Northern Germany.