[1] Catharina Backer married her first cousin, the merchant and art collector Allard de la Court (1688–1755) of Leiden, on 25 August 1711.

Allard de la Court and Catharina Backer lived in a house on the Rapenburg in Leiden.

[4] Together Allard de la Court and Catharina Backer owned one of the richest art galleries in the Northern Netherlands.

In 1766, the year that she died, her estate sold much of her art collection with an auction catalog listing 215 items, including the pair of paintings by Rachel Ruysch.

In the seventeenth century, amateur artists in the Netherlands usually belonged to families of high status who valued education and cultivation.

The albums contained her own sketches and drawings, including some that probably date from the time when she was receiving training in art.

[13] A later album of Catharina Backer's drawings, apparently assembled in 1722 but including works that date as early as 1706, has been preserved in the collection of the Amsterdam Museum.