Barbara Regina Dietzsch

Barbara Regina Dietzsch was born in the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg.[1] Members of Dietzsch's family, including her father, Johann Israel, brother Johann Christoph, and sister Margareta, were employed by the Nuremberg courts.[1] Dietzsch taught Margareta how to paint.[2]

Dietzsch was married to Nikolaus Christopher Matthes, who was also a painter. The couple resided in Hamburg.[2] Dietzsch eventually returned to Nuremberg where she died in May 1783.[1]

Dietzsch specialized in watercolor and gouache paintings of animals and plants.[1] Dietzsch primarily painted flowers, and she also painted birds and shells.[2] Her works are typically identifiable by their brown or otherwise monochromatic backgrounds.[2] These works were made into engravings, most of which Dietzsch created herself.

Her works sold in Germany, England, Holland, and France. They were collected in the Netherlands and England.[1] Additionally, although Dietzsch herself did not illustrate textbooks, her works have been included in German natural history books.[2] Christoph Jacob Trew, a physician and botanist, was a patron of botanical art in Nuremberg, including that of the Dietzsch family.[1] Her work was influential on artist Ernst Friedrich Carl Lang.[2]

The Dietzsch family used art to portray the natural world in a way that reflected the philosophical and scientific advancements of their time.[1] Germaine Greer describes Dietzsch's work as "exact and linear, as one might expect of designs for engraving, but in her more ambitious flower pieces she exhibited a conservatism of approach which was fairly antiquarium."[3]

The similarities in style and subject matter of works by Dietzsch and works by her family members have caused challenges in attribution.[1]

• A Dandelion with a Tiger Moth, a Butterfly, a Snail, and a Beetle, 18th century, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco[4]
• Dandelion, about 1755, J. Paul Getty Museum[5]
• Passiflora caerulea, Tied bouquet with ranunculus and Tied bouquet with tulips, purchased by the Royal Horticultural Society Lindley Library in 2013.[6]

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  A Study of a Thistle
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  Bouquet (Pink Flowers)
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  A Dandelion with a Tiger Moth, a Butterfly, a Snail, and a Beetle
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  A Branch of Gooseberries with a Dragonfly, an Orange-Tip Butterfly, and a Caterpillar, 1725-1783, National Gallery of Art
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  Blumenstück
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  Anemones and a Large Blue Butterfly (Phengaris arion)
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  Apple Blossom
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  Blumengebinde mit Rosen (Rosa), Tulpen (Tulipa), Mohn (Papaver) und anderen Blumen, mit Admiral
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  Gesteck aus Tuberose (Polyanthes), rosa Nelke (Dianthus) und gelber Blume mit Fliege
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  Rosa Rose (Rosa) mit einem braunen Käfer
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  Blumengebinde aus Anemonen (Anemona), Tulpe (Tulipa), Mohn(Papaver), Narzisse (Narcissus) und Aurikel (Primula auricula) mit braunem Schmetterling
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  Orangerote Aurikel (Primula auricula) mit Stachelbeer-Harlekin und sich einspinnender Raupe
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  Gesteck aus Passionsblume (Passiflora), roter Kapuzinerkresse (Tropaeplum) und Vergißmeinnicht (Myosotis), mit blauem Käfer
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  Blumenkorb mit Tulpen, Levkojen, Rittersporn und anderen Blumen auf einem Tisch
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  Blumengebinde mit roter Ranunkel (Ranunculus), weißer Tazette (Narcissus tazetta) und blauer Blume (?) mit Postillon