The motivation behind my research on Jan Toorop and the influence of Indonesia in his work began with a question I posed to Professor Luc Bergmans. I was enrolled in his course about Dutch Culture and the colonies and asked him about the influence that the Dutch colonial life had on Dutch artists after a presentation I delivered on Jan Toorop and Indonesia. He challenged me to seek the answer myself and to go deeper into the subject, suggesting it could make an interesting thesis topic. From that moment on, I willingly decided to write a thesis on the issue, which became pivotal to my undergraduate work.

ABSTRACT

Jan Toorop’s engagement with Indonesia, which was part of his heritage, was a particular aspect of his work that distinctively set him apart from many European artists of his era. His contemporaries, while diverse in their artistic pursuits, shared a common fascination with the “exotic” and the “other,” a sentiment fueled by the colonial exploits of European powers. As a matter of fact, Toorop was very much an artist of his era, deeply influenced by the swift societal transformations, technological progress, social issues, and urban expansion of his time. These changes prompted him to contemplate the human condition, the essence of the natural world, and the spiritual consequences of an increasingly industrialized society. He showed a keen interest in the lives of workers and the endeavors of ordinary people, aiming to elevate their toil to a symbolic level by delving into the tensions between the spiritual and the material. Toorop’s relationship with his contemporaries was likely nuanced, as his direct connection to Indonesia through his birth in Java provided him with a unique and personal perspective that at the same time enriched his work, connected him to his heritage and set him apart.

Towards the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th, the cultural landscape of the Netherlands was undergoing a significant transformation, characterized by an evolving perception of the exotic. This period, following closely on the heels of the Japonisme wave that had captivated many European artists, saw a growing fascination with Eastern cultures, their artifacts, and traditional attire among the Dutch artistic and intellectual communities. Van Gogh was one of the most avid lovers of Japanese woodblock prints, George Hendrik Breitner painted the Girls in kimono series at the end of the century, all the way to Multatuli and his description of colonial life on plantations in Indonesia a few decades prior. Notably, the Dutch colonial territories served as a rich source of inspiration for numerous artists and painters. Esteemed amateur botanist Frederik Willem van Eeden, born in 1829 in Haarlem, was one of them and his contributions to the Dutch cultural and scientific spheres were manifold. He held key positions, including that of the general secretary treasurer of the Dutch Society for the Promotion of Industry and the directorship of the Museum of Applied Arts. In 1864, van Eeden started a significant project to compile a collection of colonial artifacts, an enterprise which culminated in the establishment of the Colonial Museum in Haarlem that same year, which had the dual aims of promoting educational and scientific objectives.

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