Works included in this catalogue
Becker Commissioner Murray’s Tent 1854 {1894} SLV [DR]
Becker Men of Victoria 1856 {by 1861} SLV [IB]
Becker Old Prince’s Bridge 1857 {1894} SLV [PA]
Becker left Germany after the 1848 revolution, and travelled from England via Rio de Janiero to Tasmania, arriving in March 1851. He was in Bendigo from 1852-54, producing a number of sketches, including the drawing listed above, exhibited in Melbourne in April 1854. Adept in both science and art, he joined the Victorian Artists’ Society in 1856, and the Philosophical Institute of Victoria in 1859.
As a member of Burke and Wills’ Victorian Exploring Expedition, he produced a substantial body of drawings, including meteorological studies and images of members of the native population. He died near Cooper’s Creek in April 1861.
Refs.
For Becker, see Kerr Dictionary (1992), pp.59-60 (entry by A.G.L.Shaw); http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/becker-ludwig-2961 (by Marjorie Tipping; ADB vol.3, 1969); and AKL 8 (1994), 171, all with further references. See also Marjorie Tipping, Ludwig Becker: artist and naturalist with the Burke & Wills Expedition, Melbourne UP, 1979