Henrich Becker

Henrich Becker (born August 4, 1747 in Dornum , † July 10, 1819 in Neufunnixsiel ) was an East Frisian painter who became known and recognized primarily through his portraiture.

Henrich Becker was the eldest son of the Dornum organist and schoolmaster Johann Laurentz Becker and his wife Sophia Charlotte Röling. Little is known about his childhood and youth (from 1760 in Loquard near Emden), as well as about the beginning of his artistic activity. Since Henrich Becker apparently kept a detailed record of his work, and from a certain point in time signed and numbered his portraits on the reverse, the total scope of his work can be roughly estimated: Becker probably created around 500 portraits. Today about 50 portraits are still available; mostly they are privately owned, some in the State Museum in Emden. In places like Emden , Pewsum , Arle , Norden , Esens and Wittmund , his clients from the bourgeoisie after the French Revolution lived . Becker portrayed wealthy people of the class such as judges, pastors, pharmacists, timber merchants, tobacco manufacturers, surgeons, mayors, dike rent masters and wealthy farmers with their wives and children.

literature

• Martin Stolzenau: An autodidact became a portraitist of wealthy East Frisians , In: Ostfriesen-Zeitung , Volume 74, No. 139, June 18, 2019, p. 13.