Childlike innocence
This dune landscape is composed of different shades of green. A young girl sits in the dune grass. Her white bonnet indicates that she is unmarried; married women wear a cap without a jabot in the neck. The atmosphere of the scene is calm, but also mysterious. Toorop sees the wide, outstretched landscape as a symbol of the insignificance and mortality of humankind. The girl, who sits peacefully in the landscape, is a personification of childlike innocence.
The sea and fishing villages
Toorop feels himself drawn to the sea, the dunes and the characteristic inhabitants of fishing villages. For several years he lives in Katwijk aan Zee, where he makes many drawings and paintings of the local residents, especially peasant girls and fishermen’s daughters.
Domburg
He painted this pointillist landscape in Walcheren, not far from Domburg where from 1897 onwards he often spends the summer with his wife Annie and daughter Charley. Many artists and writers follow his example, whereby Domburg becomes a centre of the Dutch avant-garde.