Jacob Adriaensz Backer (Harlingen, Netherlands

Harlingen, Netherlands

Harlingen is a municipality and a city in the northern Netherlands, in the province of Friesland at the Wadden Sea. Harlingen is an old town with a long history of fishing and shipping....

, 1609 - Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, 27 August 1651) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He produced about 140 paintings in twenty years. In his style he was influenced by Wybrand de Geest

Wybrand de Geest

Wybrand Simonsz. de Geest was a Dutch Golden Age portrait painter from Friesland.-Biography:...

, Rubens

Rubens

Rubens is often used to refer to Peter Paul Rubens , the Flemish artist.Rubens may also refer to:- People :Family name* Paul Rubens Rubens is often used to refer to Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), the Flemish artist.Rubens may also refer to:- People :Family name* Paul Rubens (composer) Rubens is...

 and Abraham Bloemaert

Abraham Bloemaert

Abraham Bloemaert was a Dutch painter and printmaker in etching and engraving. He was one of the "Haarlem Mannerists" from about 1585, but in the new century altered his style to fit new Baroque trends...

. Also his drawings (male and female nudes) are highly interesting and skillful. He never painted a town- or landscape.

Biography

Backer was born in Harlingen, but his father moved in 1611 to Amsterdam, after his wife died. The family lived on Nieuwendijk

Nieuwendijk

Nieuwendijk is a town in the Dutch province of North Brabant. It is a part of the municipality of Werkendam, and lies about 8 km south of Gorinchem.In 2001, the town of Nieuwendijk had 2,212 inhabitants...

 near the harbour. Between 1627 and 1633 he and Govert Flinck

Govert Flinck

Govert Teuniszoon Flinck was a Dutch painter of the Dutch Golden Age.-Life:Born at Kleve, he was apprenticed by his father to a silk mercer, but having secretly acquired a passion for drawing, was sent to Leeuwarden, where he boarded in the house of Lambert Jacobszoon, a Mennonite, better known...

, both Mennonites, were pupils of Lambert Jacobsz

Lambert Jacobsz

Lambert Jacobsz, also Lambert Jacobsz. or Lambert Jacobszoon , was a Dutch Golden Age painter and preacher.Jacobsz was born in Amsterdam. He was the father of Abraham Lambertsz van den Tempel, and primarily painted figures. He was also active in his local Mennonite community...

 in Leeuwarden, a mennonite teacher, father of Abraham Lambertsz van den Tempel

Abraham Lambertsz van den Tempel

-Biography:He probably learned painting from his father, also a painter, but who died when he was still quite young, in 1636. That is the same year that he moved to Amsterdam, where he stayed until 1647, whereupon he moved to Leiden. According to Houbraken he was the son of a Mennonite preacher in...

, painter of religious work, and after moving to Amsterdam, a neighbor. In 1633 Backer returned to Amsterdam, and probably worked for Hendrick Uylenburgh. Backer never married, never bought a house, and might have lived with his brother or nephew Adriaen Backer

Adriaen Backer

Adriaen Backer was a Dutch Golden Age portrait painter who was a nephew of Jacob Adriaensz Backer, active in Amsterdam and Haarlem.-Biography:Backer was born in Amsterdam and probably learned to paint from his uncle Jacob Adriaensz Backer...

, who also became a portrait painter. He never was involved in a scandal.

Work

His extreme quickness in painting portraits has been particularly noticed, and Joachim von Sandrart

Joachim von Sandrart

Joachim von Sandrart was a German Baroque art-historian and painter, active in Amsterdam during the Dutch Golden Age.-Biography:Sandrart was born in Frankfurt, but the family originated from Mons...

 wrote in his Teutsche Academie that he completely finished, in one day, the half length portrait of a lady in full dress, even so early, that she was able to return the same day back to Haarlem

Haarlem

Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...

 with the painting. This remark probably has more to do with the fact that the trekschuit

Trekschuit

Trekschuit, literal translation 'tugboat', is an old style of horse-drawn boat specific to the Netherlands where it was used for centuries as a means of passenger traffic between cities along trekvaarten, or tow-canals.-History:...

 was a new invention, allowing regular comfortable transport between Haarlem and Amsterdam from 1632 onwards.

Besides being an important portrait painter - some 70 portraits can be attributed to him with certainty - Backer was an excellent painter of religious and mythological paintings. He was especially interested in pastoral subjects, themes from contemporary history, like Granida and Dafilo, and the huge Crowning of Mirtillo from 1641 in the Brukenthal National Museum

Brukenthal National Museum

The Brukenthal National Museum is a museum, erected in the late of 15th century in Sibiu, Romania, housed in the palace of Samuel von Brukenthal — who was Habsburg governor of Transylvania and who established its first collections around 1790...

 in Sibiu

Sibiu

Sibiu is a city in Transylvania, Romania with a population of 154,548. Located some 282 km north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Cibin River, a tributary of the river Olt...

 (250 x 250 cm.). The painting with the schutterij

Schutterij

Schutterij refers to a voluntary city guard or citizen militia in the medieval and early modern Netherlands, intended to protect the town or city from attack and act in case of revolt or fire. Their training grounds were often on open spaces within the city, near the city walls, but, when the...

, Company of Cornelis de Graeff

Cornelis de Graeff

Cornelis de Graeff, also Cornelis de Graeff van Polsbroek was the most illustrious member of the De Graeff family. He was a mayor of Amsterdam from the Dutch Golden Age and a powerful Amsterdam regent after the sudden death of stadholder William II of Orange...

, for years on the same wall as Rembrandt's Night Watch

Night Watch (painting)

Night Watch or The Night Watch or The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq is the common name of one of the most famous works by Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn....

, is in the Rijksmuseum

Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam or simply Rijksmuseum is a Dutch national museum in Amsterdam, located on the Museumplein. The museum is dedicated to arts, crafts, and history. It has a large collection of paintings from the Dutch Golden Age and a substantial collection of Asian art...

. Backer was one of the best in painting hands and feet. In fact, he was a leading artist in Amsterdam until his premature death in 1651. He was buried in the Noorderkerk

Noorderkerk

The Noorderkerk is a 17th century Protestant church in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. A number of other towns in the Netherlands also have a Noorderkerk church, including The Hague, Hoorn and Kampen.-History:...

.

In the Rembrandthuis can now be seen the first exhibition ever on Backer.

External links

• Backer - The great virtuoso
• Paintings by Jacob Backer in the Rijksmuseum
• http://www.hoogsteder.com/publications/journals/journal-10/backed
• http://www.essentialvermeer.com/dutch-painters/backer.html
• http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/Images/VenusAdonisBacker.jpg
• http://www.artnet.com/artists/lotdetailpage.aspx?lot_id=F0D368FD4808CFC2