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MER CALME (DEVONSHIRE) - MATIN

MER CALME (DEVONSHIRE) - MATIN

36 by 46 cm.

signed

oil on canvas

Painted circa 1888.

To be included in the forthcoming Jan Toorop catalogue raisonné, being prepared by G. van Wezel

PROVENANCE

Mr. and Mrs. van der Voort-Metman, Haarlem
thence by descent

EXHIBITED

Brussels, Les XX, February 1889, no. 10

LITERATURE

R. Siebelhoff, 'Jan Toorop's early Pointillist paintings', in Oud Holland, vol. 89, 1975, no 2, pp. 86-97, illustrated on p.90, fig. 5

NOTE

The famous painter Jan Toorop (1858-1928) can be regarded as the first Dutch painter who used the technique of pointillism. He became acquainted with this technique as early as 1887 when Seurat exhibited "Dimanche a l'ile de la Grande Jatte" at Les XX in Brussels. This new way of painting immediately made an impression on him and he started working in this style. After his marriage in June 1886 to the English Annie Hall, Toorop spent some time in England and made some of the most beautiful landscapes in pointillist style.

These paintings where shown, among 12 other works by his hand, at the famous Les XX exhibition in February 1889 in Brussels. The present lot, Mer calme (Devonshire)- Matin, was shown under number 10 and was part of a small series of paintings made in England in the summer of 188?. The only painting from these series known to the public is the one at the Kröller-Müller museum in Otterloo. This work depicts a view on the river Thames, and has the same measurements as this lot.

Mer calme (Devonshire) - Matin illustrates that Toorop did his utmost best to paint a peaceful morning scene in the best tradition of the French impressionists. It brings in mind the Argenteuil river scapes by Monet. Toorop balanced the sky and the water by dividing them in equal parts. These equal parts are only interrupted by a very narrow strip of land. And both, sky and water show hardly any movement. The only thing that catches our eye at first are the sailing boats, with their characteristic small sails on the stern. These two boats give a nice movement to the painting. By placing the boats out of the centre of the painting Toorop created a nice and calm subtle movement in the painting. Keeping the boats parallel to the picture plane, he makes it a very calm and pleasant work. Unlike the small dots Seurat was using for his paintings, Toorop instead used small brush strokes, like Pissarro was doing too in his landscapes.

Interestingly Toorop used diagonal small brushstrokes interrupted by diagonal hatches from the back of his brush for the sky, and bigger broad horizontal brushstrokes for the sea. Due to this way of painting one can clearly see the canvas on the lower part of the composition. In doing so Toorop created a very attractive painting of a beautiful sunny morning at sea.

Mer calme (Devonshire)- Matin was acquired by the great-grandparents of the present owner as a late wedding gift and never shown in public ever since. The sailing ships on a calm sea made it a perfect symbol for the newly wed couple, from a man who was to become the most famous symbolist painter in Holland.

As in the decorated frames for his symbolist works Toorop gave his pointillist work a very broad gilded frame. He decorated this frame by a pair of simple double ridges. It provides the painting with a tranquil rhythm of horizontal and vertical lines harmonizing with the depicted scene. This also has a peaceful regularity of horizontal and vertical lines, and soothing white color. And shows that Toorop was familiar with the theocratic basis of Seurat. The painting never lost its original frame, which makes it a unique document. That comes to the art market after more than a century.