Charley before the Window
Drypoint, 1898, Verbeek/Rijksmuseum 35 (iii/III), edition unknown. 4 5/8 x 5 3/8 in. Signed and dated (1902) in the plate. Signed in ink, lower right. This is a fine impression with traces of burr showing in her hair, in the upper right corner along the window frame and also below at right in the folds of her dress. The paper is a sturdy, cream Japanese with full margins. The condition is very good apart from some rubbing on the right margin and slight light toning within an earlier mat opening. This charming print shows the artist's daughter, Charley, with a view of the harbor at Katwijk aan Zee. This major work is illustrated and discussed on pages 188-189 of Holland on Paper in the Age of Art Nouveau (2014) by Cliff Ackley.
$5,500

In the Studio (In t' Atelier)
Drypoint, 1901, Verbeek/Rijksmuseum 59b), edition unknown. 5 3/4 x 5 3/8 in. Signed and dated in the plate, lower left. Signed in pencil, lower right. This is a superb impression of this very rare print. The margins are wide and appear to be full. The condition is fine apart from some rubbing on the verso of sheet. According to Cliff Ackley in Holland on Paper in the Age of Art Nouveau (2014), page 193, ""The depicted artist, who was also a pianist, is identified as Riet van Houten by the 'RH' initials in the plate at the lower left." Provenance: Kunsthandel Borzo, 's-Hertogenbosch (with their label).
SOLD

Net Menders (Nettenboetsters)
Drypoint, 1899, Verbeek/Rijksmuseum 45, edition unknown. 6 5/16 x 7 3/8 in. Signed and dated in the plate, lower left. This is a superb, early proof impression of an unrecorded state. The paper is a cream laid without watermark and the condition is very good. There's a repair in the margin at right and a few thin spots suggesting the sheet had been mounted at some point. The catalogue raisonné lists only one state. This impression is before the clouds, before more detailing to the landscape, and before more elaborate description to the cart and around it. Another early impression, similar to this one but even later, is illustrated and discussed on pages 182-183 of Holland on Paper in the Age of Art Nouveau (2014) by Cliff Ackley. The MFA impression shows more detailing in the hair of both women, more work in the background area where the wagon is, and also, the right foreground and the expansive landscape at left are more fully developed than in our impression.
SOLD

Sick Charley (Charley Toorop)
Drypoint with handcoloring, 1898, Verbeek / Rijksmuseum 37 (ii/II), edition unknown. 6 1/2 x 5 3/8 in. Signed in the plate, lower left. Signed and titled in ink below and also inscribed, "aan mijn vriend Lourijsen." This is a fine impression hand colored by the artist in white watercolor(?) on a cream wove paper. The margins are wide and possibly full. The condition is very good apart from slight light toning to the front of the sheet. Charley is the daughter of Jan Toorop and Annie Hall. She's depicted here at the age of seven. Toorop gifted this etching to his student and good friend Lambert Lourijsen (1885-1950). Lourijsen married Henriëtte Straatemeier, the grandmother of the previous owner of of this etching, in 1914. Toorop was a witness at their wedding. This work is further discussed in Cliff Ackley's book, Holland on Paper in the Age of Art Nouveau (2014), (see pages 186-187). The Rijksmuseum also has a hand colored version of this rare and compelling print.
$8,000

Sprokkelend Kind (Young Girl Gathering Sticks)
Drypoint, 1899, Verbeek/Rijksmuseum 47 (iii/III), edition unknown. 6 1/16 x 7 3/8 in. Signed and dated in the plate. Signed in ink lower right (the signature is a bit faint as is often the case with Toorop's prints.) This is a very good impression with plate tone and with traces of burr in the water and on her legs and hair. Printed on a smooth cream Japanese paper, the margins are wide and probably full. The third state shows just the suggestion of the girl at right who had been added in state two. Boats and clouds are also added in the third state along the horizon line. The print is now signed and dated in the plate. This charming print was done along the Dutch coast at Katwijk aan Zee.
$5,500

Strandvonders (Beachgoers collecting objects)
Woodcut, 1903, Verbeek/Rijksmuseum 70, edition 25. 4 x 4 7/8 in. Initialed and dated in the block, lower right. This is a fine impression printed on very thin white Japanese paper. The margins are full and the condition is fine. (There's only a very faint suggestion of darkening within the original mat opening.) This endearing print is from a series of five 1903 woodcuts by Toorop which are extremely rare in early impressions. This is from the 1928 edition of twenty-five impressions printed by Ninaber van Eyben on this thin Japanese paper. The print is numbered on the original mat which we have in our possession. This woodcut relates to his drypoint from 1899 called Sprokkelend Kind (Verbeek/Rijksmuseum 47.) The location is Katwijk aan Zee at the Dutch coast.
$2,000

The Shell Fisherman (De Schelpenvisser)
Drypoint, 1902, Verbeen/Rijksmuseum 64, edition unknown. 7 3/8 x 6 1/8 in. Signed in the plate. Signed in ink, lower left. This is a fine, rich impression printed with plate tone. The margins are probably full and the condition is very good. (There's very slight bit of light toning within a previous mat opening and very slight thinning along the outer edges of the sheet from an early mount.) Done in Katwijk aan Zee, during the artist's second stay there, this print is illustrated and discussed at length in Holland on Paper in the Age of Art Nouveau (2014) by Cliff Ackley, pages 180-181. The Rijksmuseum catalogue lists only one state which is this, the finished state, but an earlier state is known to exist.
$5,000

The Sower (De Zaaier)
Lithograph printed on cream wove paper, 1895, Verbeek/Rijksmuseum 16 (iib/II), edition probably 100 plus proofs. 8 5/ 8 x 13 in. Signed on the stone, lower right. Signed in ink by the artist. This is a superb impression with possibly the full margins. The condition is fine apart from subtle handling marks in the outer margins and small creases in the upper right corner of the sheet. This print was published in "Germinal, Album de XX Estampes Originales, Edition de "La Maison Moderne, " in an edition of 100 in 1899. This is one of Toorops's favorite prints and it's a quintessential Dutch symbolist print from the Nieuwe Kunst (art nouveau) era. De Zaaier is also quite rare today, especially in this condition. The artist used his wife, Annie Hall, as the model for this image and one face symbolizes "Het Verlangen" ('The Longing') and the other "De Berusting" ('The Knowing'). In the background at left is a mystical figure sowing. As quoted on page 132 of Dutch Modernism, The Schiller-David Collection, "In the 1890s, Toorop arrived at his striking symbolism, a personal and eclectic style based on a mixture of influences ranging from Flemish primitives, English pre-Raphaelites, Belgian and French symbolists to Egyptian, Assyrian, Japanese and Indonesian art." This impression shows probably the full sheet, as printed, with exceptionally large margins. (The printer was S. Lankhout & Cie, La Haye.) The provenance here is exceptional: With Neuer Kunstsalon Max Dietzel, Munich 1913 (inscribed in blue ink); Heinrich Stinnes (1867-1932), Mülheim a.d. Ruhr, Cologne (Lugt 1376a); his posthumous sale, Gutekunst & Klipstein, Bern, 20-22 Juni 1938, lot 1165; finally with Arsène Bonafous-Murat, Paris, and acquired from them in 2002 by a private Norwegian collector.
$12,000