Hetaere

JAN TOOROP 
(Poerworedjo, Dutch Indies 1858 – 1928 The Hague)

Hetaere, c. 1890

oil and pencil on canvas, 78 x 67.5 cm
signed lower right: J.Toorop 

provenance

• Hidde Nijland (1853-1931), Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 1892;
• Wilhelmus Josephus Rodolphus, called Willem, Dreesmann (1885-1954), Amsterdam, c. 1926;
• By descent to Maria Antonia Wilhelmina, called Pia, van Spaendonck-Dreesmann (1917-1995), Tilburg, The Netherlands;
• By descent to Charles Franciscus Josephus Maria van Spaendonck (1912-2001);
• Acquired by a Dutch collector directly from the heirs of the above c. 2002.

Exhibited

• Jan Toorop, Rotterdam, Kunstzalen Oldenzeel, October-November 1891;
• Geste Esthétique, Salon de la Rose + Croix, Paris, Galerie Durand Ruel, March-April 1892;
• Salon Les Vingts, Brussels, Musee d’Art moderne, 1892;
• L’Association pour l’Art, Antwerp, Salles de l’Ancien Musee, May-June 1892;
• Schilderijen en teekeningen door Jan Toorop, Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, February- March 1894;
• Schilderijen en teekeningen door Jan Toorop, The Hague, Haagse Kunstkring, April-May 1894, no. 6;
• Tentoonstelling Jan Toorop, Groningen, Museum van Oudheden, July 1896, no. 26;
• Jan Toorop-Retrospektive, Dresden, Dresdner Kunstsalon Arno Wolfframm, October-November 1899;
• Kunst-Ausstellung der Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs Seccession XII, Vienna, November 1901 – January 1902, no. 121;
• Tentoonstelling van schilderijen, aquarellen en teekeningen door Jan Toorop, Amsterdam, Gallery Frans Buffa & Zonen, February-March 1904, no. 52;
• Salon de la Libre Esthétique, Brussel, Musee Moderne, March-April 1905, no. 118;
• Tentoonstelling Jan Toorop, Amsterdam, Larensche Kunsthandel, February-March 1909, no 43;
• Solotentoonstelling Jan Toorop, Dordrecht, Teekengenootschap Pictura, March-April 1914, no. 22;
• Solotentoonstelling Johannes Theodorus Toorop, Amsterdam, Gebouw voor Beeldende Kunsten, January-March 1924, no. 5;
• Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum and Amsterdam, Historisch Museum, 1927, no. 3;
• Eere-tentoonstelling Jan Toorop, The Hague, Pulchri Studio, April 1928, no. 25;
• Jan Toorop, The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, 1940;
• Jan Toorop, Utrecht, Centraal Museum and Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, July-November 1941, no. 36;
• De Nieuwe Beweging: Nederlandse Schilderkunst om 1910, The Hague, Gemeentemuseum and Eindhoven, Van Abbe Museum, Oktober 1955-January 1956, no. 2; 
• Jan Theodoor Toorop, Breda, Cultureel Centrum De Beyerd, November-December 1957, nr. 65;
•  150 jaar Nederlandse kunst: schilderijen, beelden, tekeningen, grafiek 1813-1963, Amsterdam,  Stedelijk Museum, July-September 1963, no. 98;
• Johannes Theodorus Toorop, exposition de quelques tableaux, aquarelles et dessins provenant de musées et collections privées néerlandaises, Amsterdam, Kunsthandel E.J. van Wisselingh & Co., November-December 1970, no 23;
• De drie generaties, schilderijen door Jan Toorop, Charley Toorop en Edgar Fernhout, Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, and Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum and Groningen, Groninger Museum, November 1971- April 1972, no. 10;
• Jan Toorop 1858-1928 Impressioniste, Symboliste, Pointiliste, Paris, Intitut Néerlandais, October-December 1977, no. 45;
• J.Th. Toorop, de jaren 1885 tot 1910, Otterlo, Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, December 1978-February 1979, no. 27;
• Van Gogh tot Cobra Nederlandse schilderkunst 1880-1950, Utrecht, Centraal Museum and Stuttgart, Württembergischer Kunstverein, November 1980 – April 1981;
• Jan Toorop, The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, February – April 1989, no. 20;
• Toorop in Vienna: Inspiring Klimt, Vienna, Albertina Museum and The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, October 2006 – January 2007, no. 56;
• Jan Toorop: Gesang der Zeiten, The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, Munich, Villa Stuck and Berlin, Bröhan Museum, February 2016 – May 2017, no. 89. 
  
  

Literature

• Felix Fénéon, ‘l’Exposition de la Rose-Croix’, Le Chat Noir, no. XI, 02 avril 1892;
• Philippe Zilcken, ‘Jan Toorop’, Elsevier’s geïllustreerd Maandschrift, no. 2, 1898, p. 122;
• Julius de Boer, Jan Toorop, Amsterdam 1911, p. 40;
• Julius de Boer, ‘Jan Toorop’, Onze Kunst XIX, 1911, pp. 3-25, 50-62, 119-126, ill. p. 51;
• Albert Plasschaert, Jan Toorop, Amsterdam 1925, p. 11, pl. 8;
• John Baptist Knipping, Jan Toorop, Amsterdam 1947, p. 34, fig. 31;
• Aleida Betsy Loosjes-Terpstra, Moderne kunst in Nederland 1900-1914, Utrecht 1959, p. 225;
• Phil Mertens, ‘De brieven van Jan Toorop aan Octave Maus’, Bulletin des Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique / Bulletin van de Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België 18 (1969) 3-4, pp. 178-181, 203-204;
• Robert Siebelhoff, The early development of Jan Toorop 1879-1892, Dissertation Toronto 1973, cat. P 9103;
• Robert Pincus-Witten, Occult symbolism in France: Joséphin Péladan and the Salons de la Rose-Croix, New York/London 1976, p. 137;
• Joop M. Joosten, De eerste solotentoonstelling van Jan Toorop, Antiek, no. 11, February 1977, pp. 573-589, fig. 10;
• Robert Siebelhoff, ‘Jan Toorop and the year 1892‘, Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies 9/10 1988-1989, p. 77 and p. 92;
• Victorine Hefting, Jan Toorop Een kennismaking, Amsterdam 1989, p. 56;
• Inemie Gerards and Evert van Uitert, In de lijn van Jan Toorop. Symbolisme in de kunst, Den Haag 1994, p. 41, fig. 57;
• Sheila D. Muller, Dutch Art: An Encyclopedia, New York 1997, Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, vol. 1021, p. 387;
• Bettina Spaanstra-Polak, Het Fin-de-siecle in de Nederlandse schilderkunst. De symbolistische beweging 1890-1900, Den Haag 1955/2004, pp. 95-96, 346, fig. 7;
• Jenny Reynaerts, Mirror of Reality: 19th-Century Painting in the Netherlands, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam 2019, pp. 344-352, ill. no. 4.111.

Jenny Reynaerts, curator for 19^th century art at the Rijksmuseum, writes the following on Hetaere:

“Jan Toorop did not really break through, however, until the age of thirty-two, when he exhibited completely unprecedented and experimental paintings at the Salon de la Rose + Croix at Galerie Durand Ruel in Paris in 1892. The first work in this new style is Hetaere. His choice of material is surprising in itself: here he combined oil paint and pencil. Some elements, like the snake, the flowers and the signature, he scratched into the paint with the back of the brush. The pictorial motifs and colors also form an amazing whole: the main figure is dressed in a translucent robe of complementary yellow and blue through which many other shades are seen to shimmer; the green snake moves partly the reddish-brown ground. The fishermen are identifiable by their traditional Dutch attire, but one of the fisherwomen has an Asian face, as does the woman holding up the veil. Their faces and that of the blond woman are not painted but rather finely drawn with pencil. The background also presents a strong contrast between the thinly painted sea with the clear blue sky and white clouds on the one hand, and the very thickly painted dark brownish-red rocks that shield the figures like an awning on the other. 

fig. 1. Detail of the bird at the right edge of the painting. The bird’s contours are incised in the wet paint. 

If the technique was unheard of at the time, the interpretation of this image proved a genuine challenge. August Vermeylen, a Belgian author and critic from the Tachtig circles called the work ‘a startling fusion of Eastern and Northern ideas and forms’. Toorop only gave it the title Hetaere (courtesans) in 1892, and the better-known title Venus of the Sea is of an even later date. Initially he called the work Lady from the Sea, and this provides a possible clue towards an interpretation. The already famous Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen had published The Lady from the Sea in 1888. This play was not performed in the Netherlands until 1893, but it was available before that in a German translation, to which De Gids devoted a detailed analysis in 1888. At the time, it was common for a play to be read like a novel, often before it was performed. Ibsen’s work deals with the theme of self-actualization and free will through a female character who must choose between her former lover who has returned – a mysterious sailor – and her faithful husband and her two daughters. In 1887-1889, Toorop was also in a momentous phase of his life, precipitated by a major marital crisis and a serious bout of venereal disease, as a result of which he became temporarily blind and had periodically recurring paralysis in both legs. In 1887, furthermore, both his new-born first daughter and his father – far away in Java – had died. His daughter Charley would be born in March 1891, and the faceless child in the grass on the right may be an allusion to one or both of his daughters. Like that of the lady from the sea, Toorop’s future was at stake. Blindness threatened his livelihood, and divorce his happiness.“

fig. 2 Detail of pencil lines delineating the main figure’s face.

Toorop was familiar with Paul Gauguin’s work. They both were invited to participate in the 1889 exhibition organized by Les XX. In Gauguin’s opinion traditional European painting lacked symbolic depth and had become too imitative. By contrast he considered art from Asia and Africa full of mystic symbolism and vigor. Towards the end of the 19th century there was a general vogue in Europe for art of non-European cultures. Japanese prints were for instance very much sought after at the time. Hetaere’s bright colors in combination with the display of exotic animals such as parrots and the snake are reminiscent of Paul Gauguin’s work. The French painter traveled around the globe to Tahiti to draw on new visual experiences. Toorop (fig. 2) was born in Indonesia. He was raised surrounded by tribal art, exotic forms and colors.  

fig. 3 Jan Toorop after a dinner party with fellow artists Paul Verlaine, Willem Witsen and Isaac Israels on 11 November 1892.

Hetaere is one of Toorop’s most interesting and best known paintings. It embodies all different elements that characterize Toorop’s different talents. The remarkable, incised lines foreshadow his celebrated Art Nouveau practice. In Indonesia, Toorop had already experienced the power and beauty of lines applied in designs for tribal textiles and wood carvings. Beside a successful painter the artist was a remarkable draftsman. Drawing has been very important to him throughout his career and his graphic oeuvre was very well received. Hetaere appears to be a result of the artist’s interest in combining the characteristics of painting and drawing within one work (fig. 3). 

fig. 4 Hetaere displayed at Jan Toorop’s first solo exhibition at De Lakenhal in Leiden in 1894.

Hetaere made a veritable triumphal march through Europe between 1891 and 1902. It was first shown at Gallery Oldenzeel in Rotterdam in 1891. Many exhibitions in leading international avant-garde circles followed a.o. Geste Esthétique, Salon de la Rose + Croix at Galerie Durand Ruel in Paris, Salon Les Vingts at Musee d’Art moderne in Brussels, L’Association pour l’Art atSalles de l’Ancien Musee in Antwerp and at Kunst-Ausstellung der Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs Secession XII in Vienna. At the Secession XII a room was dedicated entirely to Toorop’s work, featuring Hetaere and 22 other works. Gustav Klimt’s development was strongly influenced by Toorop’s work shown at Secession XII. As a key work in his oeuvre Hetaere was included in Toorop’s first solo exhibition at De Lakenhal in Leiden in 1894 (fig. 4). By then Toorop’s name was firmly established: the exhibition drew no less than forty visitors per hour, a high number that was reported in the newspapers.   

fig. 5, Jan Toorop, Portrait of Hidde Nijland, mixed media on paper laid down on board. Dordrechts Museum, Inv. No. DM/984/586

Hidde Nijland (fig. 5) – a successful businessman in the timber trade and one of the leading contemporary art collectors in the Netherlands at the time – bought Hetaere directly from Toorop in 1892. Toorop spent Christmas at Nijland’s house in Dordrecht in 1892 accounting for their close personal ties. The house later contained a room especially dedicated to Toorop’s work. Both men shared a huge admiration for the work of Vincent van Gogh, whose work was still unknown and most controversial in the Netherlands. Nijland owned more than hundred drawings by Van Gogh. Toorop organized the first solo exhibition of Van Gogh in the Netherlands in The Hague in 1892. Toorop’s symbolist paintings made around 1890 contain innovative elements that reveal his admiration for Van Gogh. For example, his surprising use of colors, like the unusual green and pink that characterize Hetaere. By 1929 Willem Dreesman was the owner of Hetaere. Dreesman co-owned a textile and department store chain called Vroom en Dreesman. He was known for his celebrated art collection and passion for music. During WWII the German invaders tried to find and confiscate Dreesman’s art collection. The Dreesman collection was moved five times during the war and remained intact. Hetaere stayed in Dreesman’s possession until his death in 1954. After he passed away, most of the art collection was sold at auction. Hetaere was one of the exceptions, as it was inherited by his daughter Spaendonck-Dreesman. She had the painting in her possession until her death in 1995. Her heirs sold Hetaere to the current owner.  

Toorop painted Hetaere circa 1890 at Katwijk aan Zee, a small, historic coast town located only a few kilometers north of The Hague where the river Old Rhine flows into the North Sea. Most of Katwijk’s inhabitants were fishermen who became the epitome of hard-working laborers in the Netherlands. From the beginning of the Realist Movement their traditional lifestyle had lured a great number of artists.  

The North Sea was subject to plenty of Toorop’s paintings. The sea, one of nature’s strongest forces that constantly changes its appearance, inspired many artists and was of particular interest to symbolist painters. Toorop, born on the island Java, had personally experienced the power and beauty of the ocean during his journey by boat to Europe. He was a grandson of a sea captain and painted the sea throughout his career. It’s no coincidence that he lived in several Dutch coast towns such as Katwijk aan Zee, Bergen, The Hague and Domburg (where he founded an artist colony with Piet Mondriaan and other interesting Dutch artists).

Jan Theodoor Toorop was born in Indonesia. His mother Maria Magdalena Cooke was born in Indonesia. She had the British nationality and his father Christoffel Theodoor Toorop was Dutch and worked as civil servant in the Dutch East Indies (today’s Indonesia). Toorop moved to the Netherlands when he was ten years old. He was sent to school in preparation for an administrative or commercial career in Indonesia but became an artist instead. The young Toorop took painting lessons from Herman van der Weele in 1875. He was taught at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam between 1880-82. He lived and worked in Brussels from 1882-86. At the time the Belgian capital was the one of the main European centres for new artistic ideas. He became a highly respected artist within various avant-garde circles in Europe and was a.o. an invited member of Les Vingt in Brussels. In 1886 he married Annie Hall. Around 1890 Toorop was undoubtedly the most progressive artist in the Netherlands and one of the most innovative artists in Europe. He liked to experiment and quickly mastered the new styles that were turning the modern art world upside down. His daughter Charley, who became a successful painter herself, was born in 1891. Toorop’s Symbolist phase ended as abruptly as it had begun, and this was connected to his move to Katwijk in 1898. The artist seems to have been very sensitive to the places in which he worked: his Symbolist drawings were virtually all created in The Hague, while his pointillist work can usually be linked to his homes at the seaside, such as Katwijk and Domburg. Besides Toorop’s symbolist oeuvre he worked in various styles such as Realism, Pointillism, Art Nouveau, Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. After his conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1905, Toorop’s art increasingly started to reflect his interest in religious themes. Together with Vincent van Gogh and Piet Mondriaan Toorop is considered a Dutch key figure in the transition towards modern art in Europe. He died in The Hague in 1928.