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Barbara Regina Dietzsch

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Barbara Regina Dietzsch
Born(1706-09-22)22 September 1706
Died1 May 1783(1783-05-01) (aged 76)
Free Imperial City of Nuremberg, Electorate of Bavaria, Holy Roman Empire
NationalityGerman
Known forPainting
Engraving
Patron(s)Court of the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg, Christoph Jacob Trew[1]

Barbara Regina Dietzsch (22 September 1706 – 1 May 1783) was a Bavarian painter and engraver known for her still lifes.[2]

Biography

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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]

Career

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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]

Notable works

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Barbara Regina Dietzsch". Collections. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Delia Gaze; Maja Mihajlovic; Leanda Shrimpton (1997). Dictionary of Women Artists: Artists, J-Z. Taylor & Francis. p. 459. ISBN 978-1-884964-21-3.
  3. ^ Germaine Greer (2 June 2001). The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work. Tauris Parke Paperbacks. p. 247. ISBN 978-1-86064-677-5.
  4. ^ "A Dandelion with a Tiger Moth, a Butterfly, a Snail, and a Beetle". Collections. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  5. ^ "Dandelion". Collection. The J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  6. ^ "Botanical Art Collections in the RHS Lindley Library - Occasional Papers from the RHS Lindley Library, volume 16, June 2018" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-04-21.
  7. ^ "Barbara Regina Dietzsch | A tulip, a butterfly of the species Arctia caja (garden tiger moth), and a beetle (possibly a longhorn)". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2024-08-12.