Dimitar Hristov better known as Dimitar Zograf (Димитър Зограф) (1796-1860), was a noted 19th-century Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

n painter known for his icon

Icon

An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...

s.

Born in Samokov

Samokov

Samokov is a town in Sofia Province in the southwest of Bulgaria. It is situated in a kettle between the mountains Rila and Vitosha, 55 kilometres from the capital Sofia...

 to the family of Hristo Dimitrov, the founder of the Samokov iconographic school, Dimitar was the elder brother of the better-known painter Zahari Zograf

Zahari Zograf

Zahariy Hristovich Dimitrov , better known as Zahari Zograf is arguably the most famous Bulgarian painter of the Bulgarian National Revival, noted for his church mural paintings and icons and often regarded as the founder of secular art in Bulgaria due to the introduction of everyday life...

. Dimitar was taught iconography by his father in his workshop and by his father's death in 1819 he was already an accomplished painter, taking the leadership of his father's workshop and often working for the same monasteries and architects as his father.

Dimitar educated his younger brother and practically assumed the role of a father for Zahari until about 1830. In 1831, a note evidences that the two brothers worked as almost equal. In 1822 Dimitar Zograf married Hristiyaniya and had seven children, four of which also became iconographers. The best known of them is Stanislav Dospevski

Stanislav Dospevski

Stanislav Dospevski is the name assumed by Zafir Zograf , the son of Dimitar Zograf and nephew of the famed Bulgarian icon and mural painter, Zahari Zograf. He is a notable representative of the Samokov artistic school and one of the most important painters and icon-painters of the Bulgarian...

.

Unlike his brother Zahari, Dimitar did not sign his works, but they are not difficult to identify because of their unrivalled quality in the period. Together with Zahari he decorated the main church of the Rila Monastery

Rila Monastery

The Monastery of Saint Ivan of Rila, better known as the Rila Monastery is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. It is situated in the southwestern Rila Mountains, south of the capital Sofia in the deep valley of the Rilska River at an elevation of above sea level...

, the largest and most famous monastery in Bulgaria.