Background
He was born at Gonsenheim on 2 July 1846, the son of an innkeeper.
He was born at Gonsenheim on 2 July 1846, the son of an innkeeper.
Becker"s father was initially opposed to him following an artistic career, but was eventually persuaded otherwised by the painter August Gustav Lasinsky who was decorating a church at Finthen. In 1868 he moved to Frankfurt, where he studied under Eduard von Steinle at the Städel Kunstinstitut. Steinle encouraged him to make works illustrating folk tales, which he executed in watercolour.
Becker"s work was in great demand: his most celebrated picture, Der Jude im Dorn (1874-1875), a watercolour illustrating the German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm was purchased for the royal collection Galerie Neue Meister in Dresden for 4,500 marks, and his last major work, "Die Rolandsknappen", a cycle of five watercolours, was bought by the city of Mainz in 1876.
lieutenant is now in the collection of the Landesmuseum Mainz. In April 1877 he moved to Munich to work for King Ludwig II of Bavaria, but died of typhus there on 21 August 1877, aged 31.
His body was returned to Gosenheim for burial. He is sometimes known as "Maler Becker", meaning simply "Painter Becker".
