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Backer, Jacob (Adriaensz.)
(b Harlingen, 1608; d Amsterdam, 26 Aug 1651). Dutch painter and draughtsman. In 1611 his father, a Mennonite baker, left Friesland and settled in Amsterdam. Jacob Backer returned to Friesland in 1627 to study under Lambert Jacobsz., a history painter of biblical scenes who was originally from Amsterdam and had settled in Leeuwarden, capital of Friesland, about 1620. Jacobsz. was a lay preacher of the Mennonite congregation in Leeuwarden and was also an art dealer who sold, among other items, works by or after Rembrandt. In Jacobsz.’s studio Backer was a fellow pupil with Govaert Flinck, who was seven years his junior. In 1633 Flinck and Backer went together to Amsterdam, where Flinck alone entered Rembrandt’s studio. The tradition, dating back to Houbraken, of referring to Flinck and Backer together as Rembrandt’s pupils is persistent but mistaken; Bauch perpetuated the error in the subtitle of his monograph on Backer.
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