Harry Becker

Harry Becker was born in Colchester in 1865 to German parents. His father, Charles, was a well-respected GP and from 1884-1902 the family lived at the Minories in the centre of town.

Becker began his formal training as an artist at the age of 14, eventually joining the studio of Carolus Duran in Paris. The studio encouraged direct, rapid working from life to capture the essence of the subject. Following his studies, Becker spent several years in London and became well known as a master printmaker and an exhibition of lithographs on an agricultural theme was widely acclaimed. Becker was also at the forefront of contemporary painting and was a member of the New English Art Club along with Sickert, Orpen and Steer.

After a series of professional and personal setbacks, Becker moved with his family to Wenhaston in North Suffolk. Here he lived a more reclusive life, immersing himself in work and the rhythm of the agricultural year. Money was in short supply and he would work on whatever was at hand, including old sacking or greaseproof paper. However, these were intensely creative years and continued until his death from pneumonia in 1928.

After his death, Becker’s work fell into obscurity until used by Adrain Bell to illustrate the 1948 edition of his famous farming trilogy. It has since been widely admired for its striking immediacy and unsentimental depiction of rural life.