Catharina Backer

Catharina Backer
Born	1689 Amsterdam
Died	February 8, 1766 Leiden
Nationality	Netherlands

Catharina Backer (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. She 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 4 including her two sisters. After her husband died in 1755 she continued to show and add to the cabinet, while continuing to practise the art of drawing and painting herself. Her drawing book is in the collection of the Amsterdam archives.

• 
  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 artwork stayed in the family for another century.

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

She died in Leiden.

References

• Catharina Backer in 1001 Vrouwen uit de Nederlandse geschiedenis