 This remark refers both to the success of the wet-on-wet technique practised in the Netherlands at that time, as well as the fact that the trekschuit, which was a new invention in 1632, allowed regular comfortable transport between Haarlem and Amsterdam and made such trips to portrait painters possible.Besides being an important portrait painter—some 70 portraits can be attributed to him with certainty—Backer was an excellent painter of religious and mythological paintings.He was especially interested in pastoral subjects, themes from contemporary history, like "Granida and Daifilo", and the huge "Crowning of Mirtillo" from 1641 in the Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu (250 x 250 cm.