Catharina Backer

Training under Jan van Huysum and Willem van Mieris is recorded. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are floral. Places of work recorded in the authority are Amsterdam and Leiden. Work by Catharina Backer is recorded in the collections of Museum De Lakenhal, Hallwyl Museum and Amsterdam Museum.

• Name — Catharina Backer • Born — 22 September 1689 • Birthplace — Amsterdam • Died — 8 February 1766 • Place of death — Leiden

• Illustration — Flower still life, 1712 Catharina Backer was born in Amsterdam in 1689. Her parents were the lawyer Willem Cornelisz. Backer (1656–1731), of a prominent Amsterdam family, and Magdalena de la Court (1662–1712), the daughter of Pieter de la Court (1618–85) and his second wife, Catharina van der Voort (1622–1674). Catharina Backer married her first cousin, the merchant and art collector Allard de la Court (1688–1755) of Leiden, on 25 August 1711. He was the son of Pieter de la Court van der Voort (1664–1739), Magdalena de la Court's brother. Allard de la Court and Catharina Backer lived in a house on the Rapenburg in Leiden. Their children included Pieter Allardsz de la Court (1722–73). Catharina Backer died in Leiden in 1766.

• Illustration — Catharina Backer, Flowers in a Vase on a Stone Ledge, before 1711 • Illustration — Allard de la Court in 1705, by Willem van Mieris • Illustration — Flower Still-Life by Rachel Ruysch, from Catharina Backer's collection • Illustration — A painting by Abraham Mignon from Catharina Backer's collection

The authorities additionally record the headings Catherina de la Court van der Voort-Backer, Catherina de la Court-Backer, Catharina de la Court van der Voort, Catharina de la Court and Catharina De La Court Backer. She was the child of Willem Cornelisz Backer and Magdalena de la Court. She married Allard de la Court. Other recorded relations include Allard de la Court.

Catharina Backer is recorded with the occupation art collector. Recorded as a citizen of Dutch Republic. Classed in the genre floral painting.

Together Allard de la Court and Catharina Backer owned one of the richest art galleries in the Northern Netherlands. Arnold Boonen (1669–1729) painted their portraits in 1713 as part of a series of four that included her two sisters. After the deaths of their fathers in the 1730s, Allard de la Court and Catharina Backer inherited some of the art that their fathers had collected, although a pair of 1635 portraits by Pieter Dubordieu (1609–78) of their mutual great-grandparents, Pieter de la Court the Elder (1590–1657) and Jeanne des Planques (or Jeanne de Planque, 1591–1663), appears to have passed first to Allard's sister, Adriana Catharina de la Court (1690–1752), before entering Allard's collection following her death. Pieter de la Court van der Voort had been an important patron of Willem van Mieris (1662–1747) and commissioned a pair of paintings, still lifes of fruit and flowers, from Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750). These works became important in Catharina Backer's development as an artist. Her father, Willem Backer, had collected specimens of natural history as well as paintings by artists such as Jan van Goyen (1596–1656), Jan Lievens (1607–1674), Frederik de Moucheron (1633–1686), and Jan van der Heyden (1637–1712). Allard de la Court's spending on art increased after his mother died in 1740, and the art collection grew to completely fill the house on the Rapenburg, compelling the family to seek a new residence. After her husband died in 1755, Backer inherited his art collection. She continued to show and add to the cabinet. In 1766, the year that she died, her estate sold much of her art collection with an auction catalog listing 215 items, including the pair of paintings by Rachel Ruysch. Her own artworks stayed in the family for another century.