User:P. S. Burton/History of Tunisia 1835–1881

Johann Cantius Dillis (1779 Grüngiebing, Wasserburg – 12 September 1854 Munich) was a German painter and engraver.

Cantius Dillis was the brother of Johann Georg von Dillis and Ignaz Dillis. He lived in Munich from 1789 and studied under his brother Johann Georg, at whose instigation he was appointed court copperplate engraver in 1801 and court painter in 1807. The earliest of the six known etchings by Cantius Dillis are in the Munich Stadtmuseum and dates from 1790. His first known painting, the landscape Grottaferrata, from 1806, in the collections of the Neue Pinakothek, shows the influence of Johann Georg’s teaching but also reveals a certain independence. He helped Johann Georg with larger commissions, such as the eight wall paintings for the Schilcher Forestry Commission at Dietramszell (c. 1808–9); these are idealized landscapes in the style of Gaspard Dughet, mainly executed by Cantius from Johann Georg’s sketches. His brother was certainly instrumental in procuring Cantius the commission for the painting Waterfall near Golling (1813) for Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria to decorate a wall at Schloss Nymphenburg; this accompanies five pictures of Bavarian lakes and waterfalls by other artists. The drawings and oil sketches of Cantius (Munich Stadtmuseum and Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München) often resemble those of Johann Georg, but his style usually lags behind in development. When unsigned, such works have easily been confused with the work of his eldest brother.