Jan Toorop (1858 – 1928) was a Dutch-Indonesian painter and illustrator. He was born in Purworejo, Java, Dutch East Indies, the son of a Dutch-Indonesian father and a British mother. In 1869, he left Indonesia for the Netherlands, where he studied in Delft and Amsterdam and at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam.From 1882 to 1886 he lived in Brussels, where he joined Les XX (Les Vingts), a group of artists centred around James Ensor. After his marriage to an 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 own unique Symbolist style, with dynamic, unpredictable lines based on Javanese motifs, highly stylised willowy figures, and curvilinear designs.In 1905 he converted to Catholicism and began producing religious works. He also created book illustrations, posters, and stained glass designs. Toorop died on 3 March 1928 in The Hague, Netherlands.
