Zelfportret met hoed en voile

In addition to the many portraits she painted during her working life, Charley Toorop, daughter of artist Jan Toorop, also created more than 25 self-portraits. In these works, she captures the ageing process with great precision and does not spare herself. Her painting Zelfportret met hoed en voile (Self-portrait with Hat and Veil) depicts a stylish, self-confident woman who is looking very directly at the viewer. As a lover of modern cinema, Toorop often employed cinematic techniques in her work, as this portrait demonstrates, with its cropped, frontal image and dramatic close-up. During a stay in Paris in 1921–1922, Toorop became acquainted with the Fayum mummy portraits. These realistic painted panel portraits, found across Egypt and dating from the Roman period (1st–3rd century AD), long continued to inspire her and their influence can clearly be seen in this work. Toorop was interested in what she referred to as ‘animated reality’. Her work is considered as expressive realism.