Adriaen Backer (ca 1635,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

— buried 23 May 1684, Amsterdam) was a

Dutch Golden Age The Dutch Golden Age ( nl, Gouden Eeuw ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands, roughly spanning the era from 1588 (the birth of the Dutch Republic) to 1672 (the Rampjaar, "Disaster Year"), in which Dutch trade, science, and art an ...

portrait painter, active in

and Haarlem.

Biography

Adriaen Backer - Daniel Niellius staalmeester van Alkmaar

Adriaen Backer - Amsterdam almshouse regents

Backer was the son of the

Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Ra ...

Tjerk Adriaensz and the

Remonstrant The Remonstrants (or the Remonstrant Brotherhood) is a Protestant movement that had split from the Dutch Reformed Church in the early 17th century. The early Remonstrants supported Jacobus Arminius, and after his death, continued to maintain his ...

Marritje Dootshooft. He was born in

. His baptizing is not registered, letting S.A.C. Dudok van Heel suggest that he was born before 1633., though Adriaen professed to be 33 at his wedding in 1669. Adriaen probably learned to paint from his uncle

Jacob Adriaensz Backer Jacob Adriaensz Backer (1608 – 27 August 1651) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He produced about 140 paintings in twenty years, including portraits, religious subjects, and mythological paintings. In his style, he was influenced by Wybrand d ...

. In 1666 he traveled to Italy with Dirck Ferreris. In December 1667 he was back in Amsterdam and a witness when his brother Jacob married. Backer married Elsje Colyn on August 27, 1669 RKD entry on Adriaen Backer
/ref>Amsterdam City Archives
/ref> and the couple had two sons, who both died very young. Backer lived on

Spui A single-point urban interchange (SPUI, or ), also called a single-point interchange (SPI) or single-point diamond interchange (SPDI), is a type of highway interchange. The design was created in order to help move large volumes of traffic thro ...

, behind

Begijnhof, Amsterdam The Begijnhof is one of the oldest hofjes in Amsterdam, Netherlands. A group of historic buildings, mostly private dwellings, centre on it. As the name suggests, it was originally a Béguinage. Today it is also the site of two churches, the Catho ...

. Christoffel Lubienitski was his pupil and learned to paint portraits from him. Backer produced several group portraits of

Hofje {{inline refs needed, date=May 2012 A hofje (diminutive of 'hof', 'court') is a Dutch word for a courtyard with almshouses around it. Hofjes have existed since the Middle Ages. A hofje provided housing for elderly people (mostly women). ...

regents as well as historical allegories for city commissions. According to Houbraken his ''Last Judgement'' hanging in the court room (''

vierschaar A Vierschaar is a historical term for a tribunal in the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , establis ...

'') of the Amsterdam City Hall (now called the Amsterdam Royal Palace) was one of his best works.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Backer, Adriaen 1635 births 1684 deaths Painters from Amsterdam Dutch Golden Age painters Dutch male painters Year of birth uncertain