Greta Allen, who is sometimes listed under her married name Dietz, was born in Boston in 1881. At the Massachusetts Normal Art School she took elementary lessons from Joseph R. DeCamp, then Frank Benson was her teacher at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Although her work seems to be only in private collections today, Allen exhibited at the Boston Art Club, at the Copley Society and at the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts between 1897 and 1927. Her Portrait of a Boy was featured at the Pennsylvania Academy's annual exhibition of 1918.

Allen, who eventually taught art, had a solo show in 1930 in Milwaukee. The style of her genteel images relates to that of her teacher Benson. Allen was also a t...