Lot Essay
This is the final painting from a series of works from 1914 to 1917 about the sufferings of the Belgian population during the First Wold War. The German invasion in Belgium greatly shocked the Dutch. Several artists such as Jan Toorop, Leo Gestel and Jan Sluyters were inspired by the sorrows and despair of the many Belgian refugees. Toorop himself had lived in Belgium for several years.
The entire composition very much resembles the well known drawing La Belgique Sanglante (1914, 63.2 x 75.3 cm) in the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague. The central figure of a praying woman has the same features as Toorop's girl friend, Miek Janssen. The old man fishing in a boat on the lake behind her is surely St. Peter.
In 1905 Toorop converted himself to Catholicism which from then on permuated his life and work. The other titles under which the present picture was known ('Love in Times of Despair' and 'Prayer in Battle') raise this work to a higher, more abstract level of human drama.
To be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist's work being prepared by G.W.C. van Wezel
See colour illustration
The entire composition very much resembles the well known drawing La Belgique Sanglante (1914, 63.2 x 75.3 cm) in the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague. The central figure of a praying woman has the same features as Toorop's girl friend, Miek Janssen. The old man fishing in a boat on the lake behind her is surely St. Peter.
In 1905 Toorop converted himself to Catholicism which from then on permuated his life and work. The other titles under which the present picture was known ('Love in Times of Despair' and 'Prayer in Battle') raise this work to a higher, more abstract level of human drama.
To be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist's work being prepared by G.W.C. van Wezel
See colour illustration