Jan Toorop has made some facinating symbolistic paintings, but more renowned he was for his symbolistic drawings. These drawings brought him international fame. Toorop used a wide range of materials such as pen and pencil, black chalk and pastels, waxed crayons, ink, watercolour and bodycolour. Inspired by complicated images from his own imagination, he made several very personal drawings. Amongst others the Dutch writer Lodewijk van Deyssel, members of the 'De Tachtigers', influenced Toorop considerably during his symbolistic period. In 1894 van Deyssel asked Toorop to illustrate his 'Prozagedicht in 10 zangen' in which the writer described the ending of the world through the eyes of a dying poet. Toorop realised probably only one drawing with a symbolistic subject in 1895, now in the collection of the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh in Amsterdam. The woman in the present drawing bears close resemblance to one of the figures in the drawing of the museum although the subject is not comparable. There is no apocalyptic atmosphere traceable in the present lot. Toorop seems to have chosen for a typical symbolistic theme, which he used more often: the bride who is the utmost emblem of chastity and purity.