My Room in Delft, 1880

My Room in Delft is a remarkable work from the beginning of Toorop's artistic career. In 1880, he was still studying at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam. It is a fairly detailed and realistically rendered drawing of the artist's study in Delft. Although, stylistically speaking, the work is still fully in line with that of artists such as Jozef Israëls and the Hague School, which was dominant in the Netherlands at the time, a preference for a sharply delineated drawing can already be seen that would dominate his (graphic) work from the 1890s onwards. An easel can be seen in backlight on the left-hand side of the window, while on the right-hand wall a desk is drawn, filled with papers and drawings. On the right in the foreground is a large folder with drawings. Sculptures can be seen here and there in the room. On the right-hand side, for example, the underside of a Javanese sculpture has been drawn, which refers to his youth and origins in the Dutch colony. Smaller, but central and complete is a skull that is apparently used as a paperweight. Such details can be interpreted as references to Toorop's interests in the mystical and the exotic, which would be fully expressed in his later work. The Museum of Ghent was able to acquire this drawing together with some twenty other sketches, drawings and watercolours.