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oil on canvas Having started his artistic career in Leeuwarden (Friesland) studying with the history painter, Lambert Jacobsz., de Backer arrived in Amsterdam in 1633 where he worked for most of his career. He was skilled as both a history and portrait painter and his work was much praised in his own time. The subject of the present painting is taken from Pieter Cornelisz. Hooft's play Granida (Act I, Sc. 3). Written circa 1605, it was the first pastoral play in the Dutch language and enjoyed enduring popularity throughout the 17th century. The play tells the story of Granida, a Persian princess, and her lover the shepherd Daifilo. The present painting depicts their meeting when Granida, having lost her way while out hunting, comes upon Daifilo and the shepherdess Dorilea. Daifilo fetches water in a shell for the princess and falls in love with her. Another version by Backer, of larger dimensions and formerly signed (?), was in the Haas collection, Detroit and is now in the Hannemahuis, Harlingen (see K. Bauch, Jakob Adriensz. Backer, 1926, pp. 38, 80, no. 48, illus. pl. 36, and S. Gudlaugsson, ``Representations of Granida in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Painting,'' Burlington Magazine, XC, 1948, p. 348, fig. 19). Sumowski (see Literature below) has confused the provenance and literature of the present painting with the Hannemahuis version, apparently unaware of the existence of a second version. Another version was sold at Christie's, London, June 29, 1954, lot 51. A drawing for the figure of Daifilo is in the Kupferstichkabinet of the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt-am-Main (see W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, 1979, vol. I, illus. no. 5). The present painting was once part of a remarkable private collection which adorned the walls of the three luxurious hotels overlooking Lake Lucerne known as the Bürgenstock (see Provenance below).