Throughout his career Jan Toorop focused on portraits, in sketches and paintings. Although the present portrait predates Toorop’s conversion to Catholicism in 1905, his fascination with the church is already apparent. During a trip to Paris in 1902 with his family, Toorop met with Maurice Denis, a catholic painter who is held responsible for his later conversion.[1] Although his wife previously converted, Toorop became very close around the same time with Pastor Bernardus Cornelius van Straelen, who lent him books. In 1902, Toorop drew B.C. van Straelen (1859-1909) from Katwijk, a friendly minister who played a forming role in the artist’s life. The candid vicar is being drawn with the local Saint Jeroen in the background.

Jeroen van Noordwijk, was a late eight century catholic priest from noble Scottish descend, who dedicated his life to Christianity. To spread the gospel, Jeroen came in 851 to the coastal village of Noordwijk, nearby Katwijk, founding the first church. When in 856 the Vikings arrived on the shore of Noordwijk, they forced the population to adore their numerous gods again. When Jeroen resisted, he was beheaded. Legend is, that by the tenth century, nobody knew the whereabout of his remains. He appeared in a dream of Northbodo, a young boy from Noordwijk, asking for his bones to be exhumed and reburied in the cloisters of Egmond. Initially, Northbodo refused, and his horses disappeared. After a second appearance, Northbodo complied and his horses returned to him. Jeroen is now the saint of lost things.

In 1904, Toorop drew Pastor van Straelen again, wearing the same costume and the same pose, now in the Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht. This portrait was used as the frontispice for Van Straelen’s Het Ideaal veelzijdig beschouwd (The Ideal: Multi-Sided Contemplation), published in 1905 and for which Toorop designed the leather bookbinding.

[1] Exh.cat. Jan Toorop. De Nijmeegse Jaren 1908-1916, Nijmegen, 1978, p. 27