Barker, Jacques, a painter of history, was born at Antwerp in 1530; and learned the principles of painting from his father, who was an artist very knowing in his profession, though his works were in no great estimation. After the death of his father, he lived in the house of Jacopo Palermo, a dealer in pictures, who avociously took care to keep him incessantly employed, and sent his paintings to Paris to be disposed of, where they happened to be exceedingly admired. The judicious were very eager to purchase them; and though the tranactor sold them at a great price, yet the poor artist was not proportionally rewarded, but continued in the same obscure and deprested condition. His merit, indeed, was universally allowed, but his name, and the narrowness of his circumstances, were as universally unknown. He had a clean light manner of pencilling, and a tint of colour that was extremely agreeable.—He died in 1560.

Barker, Jacob, painter of portrait and history, was born at Harlingen in 1609, but spent the greatest part of his life at Amsterdam; and by all the writers on this subject, he is mentioned as an extraordinary painter, particularly of portraits, which he executed with strength, spirit, and a graceful resemblance. He was remarkable for an uncommon readiness of hand and freedom of pencil; and his incredible expedition in his manner of painting, appeared even in one portrait of a lady from Haarlem, that he painted at half length, which was begun and finished in one day, though he adorned the figure with rich drapery and several ornamental jewels. He also painted historical subjects with good success; and in that style there is a fine picture of Cimon and Iphigenia, which is accounted by the connoisseurs an excellent performance. In designing academy figures his expression was so just, and his outline so correct, that he obtained the prize from all his competitors; and his works are still bought up at very high prices in the Low Countries. In the collection of the Elector Palatine there is an excellent head of Brouwer, painted by this master; and in the Carmelites church at Antwerp is preserved a capital picture of the Last Judgment, which is well designed and well coloured. He died in 1651.

Backereel, called Bacquerelli, William, a painter of history, was born at Antwerp, and was a disciple of Rubens, at the same time that Vandyck was educated in that school. When each of them quitted that master, and commenced painters, Backereel was very little inferior to Vandyck, if not nearly his equal. And this may be manifestly seen in the works of the former, which are in the church of the Augustin monks at Antwerp; where those two great artists painted in competition, and both were praised for their merit in their different ways; but the superiority was never determined in favour either of the one or the other. He had likewise a good taste for poetry; but, by exercising that talent too freely, in writing satires against the Jesuits, these ecclesiastics pursued him with unremitting revenge, till they compelled him to fly from Antwerp; and by that means deprived his own country of such paintings as would have contributed to its perpetual honour.—Sandrart takes notice, that in his time there were seven or eight painters, who were very eminent, of the name of Backereel, in Italy and the Low Countries.

Backhuyzen, Ludolph, an eminent painter, was born at Emden in 1631, and received his earliest instruction from Albert Van Everdingen; but acquired his principal knowledge by frequenting the painting rooms of different great masters, and observing their various methods of touching and colouring. One of these masters was Henry Dubbels, whose understanding in his art was very extensive; and he was as remarkably communicative of his knowledge to others. From him Backhuyzen obtained more real benefit than from all the painters of his time, either by studying their works, or personally conversing with them. His subjects were sea-pieces, ships, and sea-ports. He had not practised very long when he became the object of general admiration; so that even his drawings were fought after, and several of them were bought up at 100 florins a-piece. It was observed of him, that while he was painting, he would not suffer even his most intimate friends to have access to him, lest his fancy might be disturbed, and the ideas he had formed in his mind be interrupted. He studied nature attentively in all her forms; in gales, calms, storms, clouds, rocks, skies, lights, and shadows; and he expressed every subject with so sweet a pencil, and such transparency and lustre, as placed him above all the artists of his time in that style, except the younger Vandervelde, who is deservedly esteemed the first in that manner of painting. It was a frequent custom with Backhuyzen, whenever he could procure resolute mariners, to go to sea in a storm, in order to store his mind with grand images, directly copied from nature, of such scenes as would have filled any other head and heart with terror and dismay; and the moment he landed he always impatiently ran to his palette to secure those incidents of which the traces might by delay be obliterated.—He perfectly understood the management of the chiaroscuro, and by his skill in that part of his art, gave uncommon force and beauty to his objects. He observed strictly the truth of perspective, in the distances of his vessels, the receding of the grounds on the shores, and the different buildings which he described in the sea-ports; whether they were the result of his own imagination, or sketched, as he usually did, after nature. His works may easily be distinguished by an observant eye, from the freedom and neatness of his touch; from the clearness and natural agitation or quiescence of the water; from a peculiar tint in his clouds and skies; and also from the exact proportions of his ships, and the gracefulness of their position. For the burgomasters of Amsterdam he painted a large picture, with a multitude of vessels, and a view of the city at a distance, for which they gave him thirteen hundred guilders, and a considerable present; which picture they afterwards presented to the king of France, who placed it in the Louvre. No painter was ever more honoured by the visits of kings and princes than Backhuyzen; the king of Prussia was one of the number; and the czar Peter the Great took delight to see him paint, and often endeavoured to draw after vessels which he had designed. He was remarkably affiduous, and yet it seems astonishing to consider the number of pictures which he finished, and the exquisite manner in which they are painted. He died in 1709.