User:Scatterwriter/sandbox

Catharina Backer (22 September 1689 – 8 February 1766), was an art collector and an 18th-century painter from the Northern Netherlands. Biography Flower still life, 1712

She was born in Amsterdam as the daughter of the lawyer Willem Backer and Magdalena de la Court. Her parents kept an album and owned a curiosity cabinet with several paintings, and the young Catharina was trained in the arts. She became a follower of Rachel Ruysch, Jan van Huysum and Willem van Mieris and copied examples of their paintings that hung in her house.

The artist's brother, Cornelis Backer, catalogued the works of art that she had created by the time of her marriage in 1711. These included paintings as well as ten albums of art. The albums contained her own sketches and drawings, including some that probably date from the time when she was receiving training in art.

Catharina Backer married her cousin, the merchant and art collector Allard de la Court of Leiden on 25 August 1711. He owned one of the richest art galleries in the Northern Netherlands, most of which he had inherited from his father Pieter de la Court. Their portraits were painted in 1713 by Arnold Boonen, in a series of four including her two sisters.

A surviving album of Catharina Backer's drawings, apparently assembled after her marriage but including works that predate 1711, has been preserved in the collection of the Amsterdam Museum. The drawings provide some evidence of her artistic education. They depict studies of heads, hands, and the nude figure; studies of fruit; and sketches after other artists. The album also includes the type of drawings for which she is best known: images of flowers, plants, and insects. Late in her career, she created images of flowers in the media of oil on canvas.

After her husband died in 1755 Backer continued to show and add to the cabinet, while continuing to practise the art of drawing and painting herself.

Allard de la Court in 1705, by Willem van Mieris

Painting by Rachel Ruysch from her collection

A painting by Abraham Mignon from her collection

After she died the art collection was sold with an auction catalog listing 215 items, but her own artworks stayed in the family for another century.

According to the RKD she is known for fruit and flower paintings.[1]

She died in Leiden. References

Catharina Backer in the RKD

Catharina Backer in 1001 Vrouwen uit de Nederlandse geschiedenis