Jan Toorop (1858–1928) was born Johannes Theodorus Toorop on 20 December 1858 in Purworejo, on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). He spent his early years there and came to the Netherlands as a boy. He studied in Delft and then at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, and in 1882 moved to Brussels.
In Brussels Toorop joined Les XX, the avant-garde group centred on James Ensor, and exhibited with it from 1884. He moved easily between styles, from Impressionism and Pointillism to the Symbolism for which he is best known, with its flowing lines, long, thin figures and allegorical themes. His work also belongs to the Art Nouveau movement, and he made posters, book illustrations and stained-glass designs as well as paintings.
In 1905 he converted to Catholicism, and afterwards he painted almost exclusively religious subjects and portraits in a somewhat more geometric style. He died in The Hague on 3 March 1928. His daughter Charley Toorop and his grandson Edgar Fernhout were also painters.