Karl Günther Ernst Felix Becker (27 September 1864,

Sondershausen Sondershausen () is a town in Thuringia, central Germany, capital of the Kyffhäuserkreis district, situated about 50 km (30 mi) north of Erfurt. On 1 December 2007, the former municipality Schernberg was merged with Sondershausen. Until 1918 i ...

- 23 October 1928,

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

) was a German art historian, best known today for the project ''

Thieme-Becker Thieme-Becker is a German biographical dictionary of artists. Thieme-Becker The dictionary was begun under the editorship of Ulrich Thieme (1865–1922) (volumes one to fifteen) and Felix Becker (1864–1928) (volumes one to four). It was compl ...

''.

Life

He was the son of the glassmaker Johann Albert Adolph Becker (1811–1891) and Johanna Wilhelmine Christiane nee Kumst (1824–1888). He studied art history at

Bonn University The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Will ...

and

Leipzig University Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

, acted as assistant to

August Schmarsow August Schmarsow (26 May 1853, Schildfeld – 19 January 1936) was a German art historian. Biography He was born in Schildfeld (now part of Vellahn), Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and was educated in Zurich, Strassburg and Bonn. He became docent ...

and gained his doctorate in 1897 with a thesis on

Early Netherlandish painting Early Netherlandish painting is the body of work by artists active in the Burgundian Netherlands, Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period, once known as the Flemish Primitives. It flour ...

. He travelled widely before settling in Leipzig as a private scholar - there he and Ulrich Thieme edited the first four volumes of the '' Allgemeinen Lexikons der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart'' until he resigned in 1910 due to ill health.

Works

Author

* ''Schriftquellen zur Geschichte der altniederländischen Malerei nach den Hauptmeistern chronologisch geordnet''. Sellmann & Henne, Leipzig 1897, zugleich Dissertation, Universität Leipzig 1898 * ''Beschreibender Katalog der Gemäldesammlung. Herzoglich-Sachsen-Altenburgisches Museum''. Pierer, Altenburg 1898; 2. Auflage unter dem Titel: ''Beschreibender Katalog der alten Originalgemälde. Herzoglich Sachsen-Altenburgisches Museum''. Bonde, Altenburg 1915 * ''Spemanns goldenes Buch der Kunst''. Spemann, Berlin . a.1901 * ''Gemäldegalerie Speck von Sternburg in Lützschena''. Twietmeyer, Leipzig 1904 * ''Mittelalterliche Kunstwerke in der Sammlung der Deutschen Gesellschaft''. Hiersemann, Leipzig 1920 (=''Mittheilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft zu Erforschung Vaterländischer Sprache und Alterthümer in Leipzig''. Band 11,3) * ''Die Sammlungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft''. In: ''Beiträge zur Deutschen Bildungsgeschichte. Festschrift zur Zweihundertjahrfeier der Deutschen Gesellschaft in Leipzig 1727–1927''. Leipzig 1927, S. 28–55

Editor

* ''Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart''. Band 1–4, Engelmann (later Seemann), Leipzig 1907–10 * ''Handzeichnungen alter Meister in Privatsammlungen. 50 bisher nicht veröffentlichte Originalzeichnungen des 15. bis 18. Jahrhunderts''. Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1922 (englisch als: ''Fifty Drawings by old masters in private collections''. Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1922) * ''Handzeichnungen holländischer Meister aus der Sammlung Dr. C. Hofstede de Groot im Haag. 50 ausgewählte Zeichnungen Rembrandts, seines Kreises und seiner Zeit in Farbenlichtdruck''. Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1922; published in English as ''Drawings by Dutch Masters. Fifty selected drawings by Rembrandt, his circle, and contemporary artists''. Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1923; 2. Band als ''Handzeichnungen holländischer Meister aus der Sammlung Dr. C. Hofstede de Groot im Haag. Neue Folge. 40 ausgewählte Zeichnungen Rembrandts, seines Kreises und seiner Zeit''. Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1923

Revisions

* ''Die Renaissance im Norden und die Kunst des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts'' (=

Anton Heinrich Springer Anton Heinrich Springer (13 July 182531 May 1891) was a German art historian and writer. Early life Springer was born in Prague, where he studied philosophy and history at Charles University, earning a Ph.D. Taking an interest in art, he made s ...

: ''Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte''. Band 4). 8. Auflage, Seemann, Leipzig 1909 * Heinrich Bergner's ''Grundriß der Kunstgeschichte''. 4. Auflage, Kröner, Leipzig 1923

Bibliography

* Gerhard Lüdtke (ed.): ''Kürschners Deutscher Gelehrten-Kalender 1928/29''. 3. Ausgabe. Gruyter, Berlin und Leipzig 1928, Sp. 108 * Hermann Christern (ed.): ''Deutsches Biographisches Jahrbuch. Band 10. Das Jahr 1928''. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart und Berlin 1931, S. 318 *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Becker, Felix category:German art historians category:People from Sondershausen category:1864 births category:1928 deaths Leipzig University alumni