Our activity for April was a visit to one of our favourite museums: the Singer Museum in Laren. This time, we visited the exhibition *The Worlds of Jan Toorop*.
In addition to Toorop’s own work, the museum displayed pieces by painters he admired—such as Gauguin—as well as works by young artists who drew inspiration from Toorop.
Around 1885, Jan Toorop was the most internationally oriented artist in the Netherlands.
He introduced his Dutch contemporaries to the latest artistic developments in Belgium and France. At the time, the work of French Impressionists like Monet was still barely known.
Toorop organized the first exhibition of Vincent van Gogh’s work in the Netherlands. His strikingly colourful paintings influenced a new generation of artists.
Experiments with colour and form were also characteristic of the decorative arts during this period.
Inspired by Japanese art and nature, the Art Nouveau movement emerged—known in the Netherlands as *Nieuwe Kunst* or *Jugendstil*.
A well-known example is Toorop’s poster design for the Delft Salad Oil Factory (*Delftse Slaoliefabriek*), in which art from the Dutch East Indies served as a major source of inspiration.
As usual we had lunch in the museum restaurant with a view on the lovely museum garden.
IWC Breda 