Jan Toorop Biography

Johannes Theodorus "Jan" Toorop (1858-1928) was a Dutch painter who worked in various styles, including Symbolism, Art Nouveau, and Pointillism. His early work was influenced by the Amsterdam Impressionism movement.

Toorop's father was Christoffel Theodorus Toorop, a civil servant, and his mother was Maria Magdalena Cooke. He was the third of five children and lived on the island of Bangka near Sumatra until he was nine years old. He was then sent to school in Batavia on Java.

In 1869 he left Indonesia for the Netherlands, where he studied in Delft and Amsterdam. In 1880 he became a student at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. He met the Belgian painter William Degouve de Nuncques in 1883, and the two shared a studio for a time and developed a strong friendship. From 1882 to 1886 he lived in Brussels, where he joined the artist association L'Essor, which had as its original aim to rebel against the conservative tendencies of the art institutions and circles in Brussels. Later, he joined Les XX (Les Vingts) in Brussels, a group of artists centred on James Ensor. Toorop worked in various styles during these years, such as Realism, Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.

After his marriage to Annie Hall, a British woman, in 1886, Toorop alternated his time between The Hague, England and Brussels, and after 1890 also the Dutch seaside town of Katwijk aan Zee. During this period he developed his unique Symbolist style, with dynamic, unpredictable lines based on Javanese motifs, highly stylised willowy figures, and curvilinear designs.

From 1897 Toorop lived for 20 years in a small house on the market in the seaside town Domburg, Walcheren, Zeeland. He worked with a group of fellow artists, including Marinus Zwart and Piet Mondrian. There was no joint endeavour or common style among them. Each followed his individual personality, but they sought their inspiration in "the Zeeland Light", in the dunes, forests, beaches and the characteristic Zeeland population. Toorop was the centre of this group.

He soon turned to the Art Nouveau style, in which a play of lines is used for decorative purposes, without any apparent symbolic meaning. In 1905, he converted to Catholicism and began producing religious works. He also created book illustrations, posters, and stained glass designs.

Throughout his life Toorop also produced portraits, in sketch format and as paintings, which range in style from highly realistic to impressionistic.

Toorop died on 3 March 1928 in The Hague. His daughter Charley Toorop (1891-1955) was also a painter, as was his grandson Edgar Fernhout.