Dorothea Maria Graff

[3] Though Johann Graff joined his family later, in 1686 Merian left her husband and moved with her two daughters and her mother to a religious community of Labadists in Wieuwerd, Friesland.

[2] In 1691 the four women moved to Amsterdam, where they set up a studio painting flowers and botanical subjects, continuing Merian's work on "The Caterpillar Book".

[3] In 1713 mother and daughter published Der rupsen begin, voedsel en wonderbaare veranderingen, followed by the second volume in 1714.

Gsell had been living in Amsterdam since 1704 and had five daughters from his first marriage, including Katharina, the later wife of the mathematician Leonhard Euler.

[3] Works by the house of Merian were purchased by Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach, Pieter Teyler van der Hulst, and Robert Areskin.

In October 1717 Georg Gsell became court painter in Saint Petersburg and Dorothea became a teacher at the Petrus Academie of Science, and curator of the natural history collection Kunstkamera (which included her own work).

Her works are hard to tell apart from her sister's and mother's work, but Sam Segal has reattributed 30 of 91 folios in the British Museum to her