This work is a sketch for Toorop's lithograph poster of the Delftsche Slaolie from 1894.
In comparison with the image of the original sketch the poster is in reverse.
The poster served to advertise a table oil for salads.
The composition is so full that it almost obscures the real subject: woman pouring oil out of a bottle.
This poster became so popular that no book on Jugendstil or Art Nouveau fails to include it.
Due to this succes Dutch Art Nouveau became synonymous with the so called 'salad oil style' Almost the whole area of the image is occupied by the play of undulating parallel lines of the garments and hair of the women: style elements very typical for Toorop's symbolist works.
His major symbolist works were executed between 1890-1894.