The Connoisseur of Prints (Dr. Aegidius Timmermann)

The man in this portrait is Aegidius Timmerman, a Dutch classical scholar and writer and a friend of the painter, doing the thing he loved most, studying a print. Look at what he holds: a colour lithograph by the French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, brought close to his face so he can take in every line. Toorop painted him between 1898 and 1900 in a delicate pointillism, thousands of tiny dots in soft pastel tones, so the collector and his cherished sheet are made of the same shimmering flecks. The Lautrec print he pores over was itself only a few years old, brand-new art of its moment held in the hands of a devoted admirer.