The painting is considered an important painting in Constant's oeuvre; it shows his transition from New Babylon to the Late Period. After finishing it, Constant was somewhat shocked by the result: he felt that he had incorporated too much reality into it. Fanny Kelk - art critic and preparing an exhibition and catalogue accompanying the David Roëll Prize for Constant, said she thought the painting was beautiful. This kept Constant from destroying it — he ended up giving the painting to her. Inspired by her words, Constant allowed reality to seep even further into his paintings.
Le Viol was inspired by the news of the Dutch serial killer and rapist Gerardus Cornelis Spruit (Rotterdam, January 12, 1922 – Avereest, December 12, 1989).
Spruit became known as "the Donald Duck colporteur". He worked in Amsterdam South as a magazine colporteur. In exchange for Donald Ducks, candy or money, he said he played sexual games with many boys in the 1960s.
On August 4, 1971, he lured 9-year-old Bastiaan (Basje) Bloemena to his house (his (second) wife and children stayed at a campsite in Epe), abused the boy and strangled him. He left the body at the De Kievit recreational center near Wilnis, where it was found two days later by a fisherman. Bloemena's remains were wrapped in a striking cloth of which - as it turned out - only 24 were produced in 1966 by the Van Heek brothers in Enschede. Only one copy of it remained in the Netherlands due to a weaving error. Despite extensive attention to this almost unique dress in the media, Spruit was not exposed. Although his wife recognized the cloth in which Bloemena's body was wrapped and wanted to contact the police about it, Spruit managed to prevent her from doing so without her suspecting anything.
On August 5, 1974, he lured 10-year-old Hélène (Heleentje) Isaac to his house in a similar manner (again, his roommates were at the campsite). At home it turned out that he had been wrong. He had mistaken her for a boy because of the girl's boyish appearance. Out of anger he strangled her. He dumped her body at Elzenhage sports park in Amsterdam-Noord where it was found the next day.
Spruit was arrested on August 8, 1974 as a suspect in the killing of Isaac. This time, some customers from his 'neighborhood' in Amsterdam South noticed that on the day of Isaac's disappearance he had delivered a few hours later than normal. Confronted with the gap in his schedule, he confessed to killing her. Then the link was made to Bloemena and he confessed that he had also killed her. [translated from https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Spruit]
