Jan Toorop (1858-1928)
Dorpshuizen or De Dode Boom (Village Houses or The Dead Tree), 1897
Drypoint on Japan paper
6½ x 5¾ inches (16.5 x 14.6 cm.)
Signed in plate & in ink
At first, Toorop included a Zeeland girl into the composition, before changing his mind and removing her. On early impressions, such as the present one, her outline still shows on...
At first, Toorop included a Zeeland girl into the composition, before changing his mind and removing her. On early impressions, such as the present one, her outline still shows on the white wall on the side of the house. Alternative titles used by Toorop for the print are Boerenerf met boom (Barnyard with Tree) and De Dode Boom (The Dead Tree). The dead tree in Toroop’s delicate drypoint now serves as a fencepost, though it undoubtedly once shaded the yard of this house in Katwijk aan Zee, a town on the Dutch coast facing the North Sea.
According to Spaanstra-Polak, the zinc plate for the print is kept in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, where also another early impression of Dorpshuizen is kept [object no. RP-P-1954-511].
Provenance
Jan Frederik Bianchi (1878-1963), Amsterdam (L.3761)His sale, Paul Brandt, Amsterdam, 23-27 November 1964, lot 1267
Private collection, The Netherlands
Kunsthandel Dolf D. van Omme, Amsterdam, 2012
William P. Carl Fine Prints, Durham, NC, 2012
Private collection, New York
Literature
Plasschaert, Opmerkingen, p. 43Plasschaert 1897-11
Emporium July 1905, p. 24 ("l'Alberto Morto")
Jaarboekje voor Grafische Kunst 1918, p. 19
B. Spaanstra-Polak, De grafiek van Jan Toorop, exh.cat. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1969, no. 32, unknown edition