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Artist or Maker: Jan Toorop (DUTCH, 1858-1928)

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Provenance: Jules Cordeweener, Brussels.
Anon. sale Mak van Waay, Amsterdam, 7 April 1925, lot 148.
H. Nijgh, Rotterdam, thence by descent.

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Exhibited: Brussels, Les XX, February 1889, no. 10.
The Hague, Haagsche Kunstkring, Jan Toorop, 1894, no. 30.
Arnhem, Antibus Sacrum Jan Toorop, 1894, no. 28.
Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal, Jan Toorop, 1894, no. 28.
Potsdam, unknown, 1925, no. 130.
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen, Kerst tentoonstelling, 1930, no. 37.
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen, Divisionisten, 1936-1937, no. 69a.
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Verzameling H. Nijgh, 4 October-2 November 1941.
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen, Verzameling H. Nijgh, 20 December 1941-1 February 1942.
Utrecht, Centraal Museum, Verzameling H. Nijgh, 9 May-28 June 1942, no. 98.
The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, Verzameling H. Nijgh, 10 October-29 November 1942.
Amsterdam, Kunsthandel E.J. van Wisselingh, 9 November-12 December 1970, no. 14.
Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, De vier generaties Jan Toorop, Charley Toorop en Edgar Fernhout, 1971/1972, no. 5.
Paris, Institut Néerlandais, Jan Toorop, 1977, no. 55.
Otterlo, Museum Kröller-Müller, Jan Toorop, 1978-79, no. 21.

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Notes: THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

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Mer Calme is one of Jan Toorop's earliest pointillist paintings. Toorop became acquainted with this new technique as early as 1887 when George Seurat exhibited Dimanche a l'ile de la Grand Jatte at Les XX in Brussels.
After that change of style, technique and vision followed each then in rapid succession, although in 1887 there was a halt in Toorop's development as he fell seriously ill. In 1888 when he recovered, he travelled with his English wife Annie Hall for the summer to England, where he painted several pointillist landscapes which he exhibited in February 1889 at Les XX in Brussels. The English paintings were lighter and more poetic than the works painted in Holland, which often contain more social elements.

Mer Calme was exhibited at Les XX as number 11. In this exhibition Toorop showed fifteen works and only seven were painted following the new method. With a similar size and subject, number 10 was Mer Calme (Devonshire) - Matin (private collection) Although comparable, these works are executed in a slightly different manner. The dots in the present lot are fine, where the other Mer Calme is done in small brushstrokes. In colour and atmosphere these works are still very much connected to French impressionism. Although Toorop did not work according to any colour theory, Siebelhoff stated that in Mer Calme one observes some direct use of colour theory. Here the sun contains the complementairy light green and pink and the upper section of the boat orange and light blue. The sky is very pale blue-white (op cit., p. 249)
The earliest pointillist paintings of Toorop do not easily fit into the Neo-Impressionist category. They feature a tendency towards the colour conceptions of impressionism not withstanding the use of a pointillist brush technique.

In 1889, Philip Zilcken is very positive in his article about Mer Calme. About Toorop's stay in Lynmouth he stated ''De eerste werken die hij hier buiten maakte, meende hij door de tegenstelling van zuiver, onverdeeld geel, blauw en rood zeer sterk van kleur te maken; verwonderd was hij toen hij die in tegendeel zeer blank en teer van toon vond. Een der mooiste, de Baay van Lynmouth is in het bezit van den heer Cordeweener te Brussel'' (Zilcken, op cit., p.120)

Toorop donated Mer Calme to his Belgian friend and collector Jules Cordeweener. From the correspondence between these two, we know that the view in the works is taken from the banks of Lynmouth, Devonshire. In 1925, after the death of Cordeweener, his collection was sold at Mak in Amsterdam, where Mr. H. Nijgh purchased the works for his outstanding collection.
To be included in the catalogue raisonné on the artist's work, currently being prepared by G.W.C. van Wezel.