Harry Becker was actually christened Henry Otto Becker but interestingly enrolled in the 3 year course at Antwerps national Academy as Hendrick Becker when he was just 14 years old. It was his time in Antwerp that seems to have instilled a love of the Dutch and particularly the farm labourer , and this was a theme he returned to time and time again in the following years. Becker completed his formal art training with a period at Bushey School of Art in Hertfordshire and an apprenticeship at the studio of Carolus Duran in Paris, before returning home for a period in Colchester where his family lived. It was this period in the late 1880’s that he started to make a name for himself and had work accepted for the R.A . In 1894 Becker moved to London but continued to make excursions to rural areas to paint. Time and time again he returned particularly to Holland in the late 1890’s and early 1900’s. He concentrated on the field work of the potato picking and bean harvest undertaken by women as well as men and captured a time when a national dress still existed with aprons , bonnets and clogs the attire of the day for the women.
Becker’s love affair with the Dutch matured his work and inspired a series of lithographs and a cluster of successful exhibitions and appearances at the Royal Academy summer exhibition. He completed a series of lithographs depicting Dutch farming scenes in 1908 and 1909 and exhibited them that same year in his London studio and the commercial gallery at Queens Gate . At the end of the year Becker held another exhibition in his studio titled ‘Field labour in Holland’ and comprised of 33 watercolours which were greeted with acclaim by the Illustrated London News. They welcomed Becker as “a rare painter “ and they said of the subject “new to watercolour, the austere figures of young women a-field, full of vital angularity and splendidly fresh and unexpected beauty. “
It is interesting that when I showed the watercolour shown below to a very good friend she commented on how it had something of the ‘Soviet realism’ style about it and while I had not considered that myself I have to agree with her view .
So here at Blondes Fine Art we are delighted to have acquired one of those 33 watercolours - illustrated above- painted on Milburn board - a favourite of Becker - the watercolour wash is over pencil giving a wonderful feeling of fluidity and movement.
Further research has resulted in even more interesting facts about this painting . We are privileged to be the custodians of the personal archive of art historian David Thompson, who was the author of the definitive book about Becker , and tucked away in an old photo album we found an annotated image which shows the preliminary sketches for this watercolour . Interestingly , David does not reference the watercolour but does reference the fact that the work became an oil painting that was exhibited the year after Beckers watercolour exhibition at the Royal Academy summer exhibition in 1911. We can not find an image of the work but it was exhibition number 380 and titled Dutch peasant women gathering potatoes. Shown below are the page from the R.A. Exhibition and the notes from David Thompson’s archive .
So it is interesting to see the genesis of the work and how it was scaled up and developed into our watercolour and finally became a exhibited oil painting . If you have this oil or know where it is we would love to see it so do please get in contact with us here at Blondes Fine Art.