Portrait of Fritz Meyer-Fierz

Jan Theodoor Toorop

1909

Pencil, chalk, and pastel on paper

Minneapolis Institute of Art

A head and shoulders portrait of an older man with a beard and receding hairline, depicted in profile facing right. He is wearing a suit and tie. Jan Toorop was a leading artist in the Netherlands in the turn of the last century. He was born in Java, in modern-day Indonesia, the son of a Dutch-Indonesian father and an English-Chinese mother. At 14, he moved to the Netherlands, where he trained as an artist. He was active as a draftsman, painter, printmaker, and designer of posters, book illustrations, and decorative arts. This is one of a pair of portraits (see also 2018.35.1) that Toorop drew in Switzerland in 1909. They depict husband and wife Fritz and Nina Meyer-Fierz of Zurich, who were major collectors of work by modern artists, including Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne,