Michael Zeno Diemer was a German artist. Now known primarily for his marine paintings and postcard designs, he was initially famous for his panoramic paintings of battles.
Michael was born on 8th February 1867 in Munich which was then part of the Kingdom of Bavaria.
In 1884, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, where he studied with Gabriel Hackl and Alexander von Liezen-Mayer.
Diemer’s fame initially derived from his impressive battle paintings. In 1894, over the course of six months, he worked in Innsbruck, where he created a 1000 square meter (10,800 square feet) panoramic painting depicting the Battles of Bergisel (1809), in which forces led by Andreas Hofer defeated the armies of Napoleon and the Kingdom of Bavaria. It is currently on display at the Innsbrucker Riesenrundgemälde [de]; one of only thirty surviving panoramas from that period.
Another panorama from 1896 depicted the Battle of Bazeilles from the Franco-Prussian War. It was displayed at a specially constructed building in Mannheim and is now lost. He created several works for the Deutsches Museum in Munich; including a Roman aqueduct for the hydraulic engineering display, a Medieval herb garden and the flight of a zeppelin (1909). In Stuttgart, for the "Ketterer", a restaurant at a brewery, he produced a series of fourteen large paintings on the history of Swabian emigration.
As a watercolour artist, he produced numerous landscape paintings and maritime scenes, poster designs, and postcard motifs. He also worked as a musician and a composer.
Michael married Hermine, the eldest daughter of the actress and writer, Wilhelmine von Hillern. Their son, Franz-Zeno Diemer, became a pioneering test pilot and flight engineer.
Michael Zeno Diemer died on 28th February 1939 in Oberammergau.
"Luftkampf" by Michael Zeno Diemer, circa 1917. German Albatros C.III aircaft in combat with British Martinsydes.
Sources: Wikipedia,
Ognyan Hristov - Artists of the First World War Facebook page 19.9.2021
And Gregory VanWyngarden found a set of paintings by Diemer and posted them on Artists of the First World War Facebook page on 21st May 2025:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/385353788875799/?hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen&multi_permalinks=1894059661338530
