Rachel Pellekaan was the first wife of Edgar Fernhout, son of Charley Toorop. Born of Dutch parents, she grew up in Paris, and from the age of sixteen she returned to her school and art education in the Netherlands. She also studied at the art academy in Paris for a while, while at the same time earning her money making illustrations. Nature was her great source of inspiration, but city scenes also feature in her oeuvre. Her work is characterized by great refinement and an eye for detail, influenced by the strictness of the new realism from the 1930s onwards.