Surtout pas des principes! Charley Toorop
Charley Toorop (1891-1955) is regarded as the most prominent female Dutch artist of the 20th century. She created an oeuvre that is strong-willed, self-aware and socially committed. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen presented a large-scale retrospective of her work, displaying 120 paintings, among which sixteen self-portraits.
After an unsuccessful marriage to Henk Fernhout, with whom she had three children, Charley Toorop settled in Bergen. Painting and her artistic calling always occupied a primary position in her life. Her house ‘De Vlerken’ was a meeting place for a select circle of artistic friends, which included Piet Mondriaan, Adriaan Roland Holst and Gerrit Rietveldt. For Charley Toorop, painting was the ultimate form of self-realisation. A perfect example of this is the self-portrait from 1928 that was recently acquired by Museum Boijmans van Beuningen and that was displayed at the exhibition. The retrospective ‘Surtout pas des principes! Charley Toorop’ was accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue.
The exhibition ‘Surtout pas des principes! Charley Toorop’ was made possible thanks to the support of the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and the K.F. Hein Fonds.