Jan Toorop

Jan Theodoor Toorop was born on December 20 in Purworedjo Java, Indonesia. He was not only a Dutch Impressionist, Symbolist and Art Nouveau painter, but also an illustrator and graphic designer.

At the age of 11 he left Indonesia for the Netherlands, and attended high school in Leiden, followed by Winterswijk and The Hague. His artistic intrests lead him to the National Academy for the Arts in Amsterdam, where he worked in sculptures and crafts. To continue his education he moved to Brussels with his friend Antoon Derkinderen and took lessons at the Academy of Fine Arts.

In Brussels he joined Les XX (Les Vingt, The Twenty), a group of young belgian artists centered around James Ensor and Fernand Khnopff. Les xx saw themselves as progressive artists, often turned down by the bourgeois art circles and in return rejecting the conservative values.

While traveling trough western Europe with members of Les xx and exhibiting in several cities, he met artists like James Whistler and William Morris.

In 1890 he returned to the Netherlands. During this period he developed his symbolist vision in which he depicts a world beyond reality, by using unpredictable, curvy lines and symbols as ways of expression.

He used this curvy style not only for high-art symbolist paintings, but also for more decorative, commercial purposes. From 1894 onwards he designed several posters and bookcovers.

The best known example of his art-nouveau style work is the poster for the Delft Salad Oil. The only thing that makes clear this is an advertisement is the heading on top, with a picture of the bottle on either side. The two stylized women, wearing exhuberant dresses dominate the image. The lady on the left pours oil on the salad, the one on the right points at the peanuts which form the ingredients for the oil. Centered among the curves is the weapon of the manufacturer and the hair of both women, which fills the larger part of the image. Not an inch is left uncovered. In this poster Toorop elevates preparing salad to the level of a mystic rite.*
This poster became so popular that ever since Art-nouveau style is known as Salad-Oil-style in the netherlands.

In 1905 Toorop converted to Roman Catholicism. During this time his work became more mystic and religious.

Despite the fact that he was almost continuously confined to a wheel chair by 1920, caused by the paralysis of his left leg, he continued to work, mostly on drawings propagating the catolic belief.
He died at the age of 69 on march 3rd, 1928 in The Hague.

Jan Toorop's work influenced countless contemporaries, amongst whom the Austrian Gustav Klimt, and several dutch graphic designers like Van der Leck.

READING

Kees Broos, Paul Hefting, Dutch Graphic Design: A Century, The MIT Press(1997).
find this book on amazon.com

IMAGES

Archive of Dutch bookcoverdesign from 1890-1940.
jan-toorop.com
Buy Jan Toorop's "Levensverzekering-maatschappij Arnhem"
Buy Jan Toorop's "Pandorra"
Buy Jan Toorop's "Delftsche slaolie"