Chronology
1858 Jan Theodoor Toorop was born on December 20, in Purworejo Java, Indonesia, from a part Javanese father and a British mother. His names at birth were Jean Theodoor Toorop
1863 The Toorop family moves to Banka, a small island to the southeast of Sumatra (Indonesia)
1868 Jan Toorop is baptized in the Protestant church
1869 He leaves Indonesia for the Netherlands, and attends high school in the town of Leiden
1874 He attends high school in the town of Winterswijk (eastern Netherlands)
1875 Toorop moves to The Hague, and takes lessons from H.J. van der Weele
1876 Establishment of the ‘Hollandse Teekenmaatschappij’ (Dutch Drawing Company), The Hague.
Toorop gets to know painters from the ‘Haagse School’, and works at the ‘Polytechnische School’ (Polytechnic) in Delft, where he will remain for two years, taking lessons with P. Tétar van Elven
1880 He visits the ‘Rijksacademie voor beeldende kunsten (National Academy for the Arts) in Amsterdam, where he takes lessons with August Allebé. He also works in sculpture and crafts, and becomes friends with Jan Veth and Antoon Derkinderen.
He joins the St. Lucas Association, of which Willem Witsen is president, and is influenced by Jules Bastien-Lepage, Edouard Manet and James Ensor
1882 He leaves together with Derkinderen to stay in Brussels, where he will remain until 1886, and takes lessons with Portaels at the Academy of Fine Arts (Ecole des Arts Décoratifs)
1883 He joins the association 'L'Essor’, where he has expositions of his works together with other associates.
He travels to England, then lives in Malines (Belgium) with several other artists
1884 Toorop exhibits at the Groupe des Artistes Indépendants in Paris, and joins the group of artists called ‘Les XX’ ('Les Vingt', ‘The Twenty’) in Brussels, Belgium.
He travels to England and also pays his first visit to Paris.
1885 Toorop has his first exposition. He travels to England again, meets Whistler, discovers the Pre-Raphaelites and William Morris' views on art and socialism and exchanges letters with Annie Hall
1886 Toorop marries Annie Hall (British) in Knely on 12 May. In Brussels he makes contacts with Octave Maus and Edmond Picard, and through them meets many other artists. As the first painter in Holland, he starts using pointillistic techniques
1887 Toorop suffers a serious disease, becoming temporarily blind. Seurat’s painting 'Un dimanche d'été a la Grande Jatte' (‘A summer Sunday at Grande Jatte’) is on exhibition in Bruxelles. Toorop’s oldest daughter, Anne Marie, dies. He lives in Amerongen for a short time
1888 Toorop admires Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, and works in Elsene (Ixelles), Belgium
1889 Annie and Jan Toorop live in England for several years, where Jan gets to know William Morris. Toorop prepares an exhibition of works by ‘Les XX’ in Amsterdam, together with Guillaume Vogels
1890 Toorop lives in Katwijk for two years. He is in contact with Albert Verwey and other members of the Dutch artist group the ‘Tachtigers’ (the Eightiers) in Noordwijk. Henri de Groux becomes very critical of Vincent van Gogh, Paul Signac and Henri de Toulouse Lautrec and is therefore banished from ‘Les XX’. At this time, Toorop develops his own version of Symbolism using elements of Javanese aesthetics
1891 Birth of Jan’s daughter Charley Toorop (in Katwijk), who will become a highly talented painter, as will her son Edgar Fernhout. Toorop exhibits three sea views in the exhibition of ‘Les XX’, and his first symbolical works are exhibited in Utrecht.
Toorop is now recognized as a fully-developed Symbolist.
1892 Toorop exhibits symbolical works by ‘Les XX’. ‘De jonge generatie’ (‘A new Generation’) is exhibited during the first show of the 'Salon de la Rose et Croix'in Paris. He becomes a member of the Rosicrucians for a year. Paul Verlaine and de Sàr Peladan visit the Netherlands for a series of lectures. First one man show by Toorop in the ‘Haagse Kunstkring’ (The Hague Circle for the Arts), of which Toorop is a founder
1893 'De drie bruiden' (‘The three brides’), a symbolical drawing, is shown at the ‘Etsclub’ in Amsterdam, and is bought by art dealer Van Wisselingh. His drawings of this year are typical of Art Nouveau
1894 'Les XX' becomes 'La Libre Esthétique', and exhibits Toorop’s 'Verlangen en Bevrediging' (Desire and Satisfaction; Louvre, Paris). Toorop has his own exhibit in the Museum ‘De Lakenhal’ in Leiden. The newly founded English art periodical 'The Studio' illustrates some of his work
1895 This is a very important phase in Toorop’s dry needle art; he makes commercial artworks and posters
1896 - 1897 Toorop makes a series of book-covers
1897 Toorop stays in Domburg (Zeeland) for the summer, where he will return for the next 20 years
1898 Toorop has important exhibits outside the Netherlands, in MZnchen (Germany), Dresden (Germany) and Copenhagen (Denmark), among other cities
1899 Toorop returns to the town of Katwijk, where he remains in residence until 1904, in a house built by the well-known architect Hendrik Berlage. He works regularly in the town of Domburg, but also lives at several addresses in The Hague
1900 Toorop has an exhibition in Vienna (Austria) at the 'Secession'
1902 Toorop finds success with his exhibit at ‘Secession’, but has problems in his personal life
1903 Toorop finishes his famous ‘Tableaux’ in ceramics for the stock market building (Beurs) in Amsterdam
1904 Lives in a house in the Vossiusstraat in Amsterdam, where he entertains many guests, including Pablo Casals and Eugéne Isaye
1905 After a long period of preparation, Toorop converts to Roman Catholicism, and changes his first name to Johannes.
He stays in Domburg for much of his time
1908 Toorop moves to the town of Nijmegen, Barbarossastraat 131
1910 Travels to Ireland
1913 Toorop meets Miek Janssen, with whom he will remain close friends for the rest of his life
1916 Toorop moves from Nijmegen to The Hague, Van Merlestraat 124
1917 Works at various places on the stations of the cross; the last stations were difficult to finish because of Toorop’s ill health and partial paralysis
1918 Jan Toorop’s 60th birthday is celebrated widely. He has an exhibit at the art dealership 'Kleykamp' in The Hague
1919 Toorop travels with the author Arthur van Schendel and Miek Janssen to Lourdes (France)
1920 He has to stay in his wheelchair almost continuously because his left leg has become paralyzed.
He works hard, mainly drawings and graphics in order to promote catholicism.
1921 Finishes many portraits
1923 Toorop designs the 2 cent postage stamp
1928 Jan Toorop dies on the 3d of March in The Hague
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