Toyen (Marie Cerminova), La Dame de Pique, 1926 oil on canvas Dimensions: 92 x 65 cm signed and dated lower right: TOYEN 1926 verso old stamps: ?Succession Toyen? Provenance: - collection of painter Toyen (until her death) - auction of the Toyen inheritance (Succession Toyen), Nouveau Drouot - Salle 10; 9, rue Drouot, Paris, cat. no. 18, June 21, 1982 - purchased by a French collector - a prominent judge of the Paris Court of Justice for the then record FRF 84,170 (invoice dated June 21, 1982 attached) Exhibited: - Styrsky et Toyen, Contemporary Art Gallery, 135 Boulevard Raspail, 27 November - 10 December 1926, (catalog no. 39) - Exhibition of new paintings by Styrsky and Toyen, Aventine Mansard, Prague 2 June - 15 July 1928 (catalog no. 42) - Styrsky, Toyen, Heisler, Mus‚e National d'Art Moderne, Paris, February 2 - March 29, 1982, reproduced in the exhibition catalog, p. 14 - Toyen, Prague City Gallery, Prague, May 12 - August 8, 2000, reproduced in catalogue, p. 47 - Toyen and femme surr‚aliste, Mus‚e d'Art Moderne, Saint-tienne M‚tropole, June 28 - September 9, 2002, reproduced in catalogue, p. 57 Publicated: - Jan Claverie, Styrsky, Toyen, Heisler, Center Georges Pompidou, Museum of the National Art of Paris, Paris 1982, reproduced in the exhibition catalog, p. 14 - Ragnar von Holten, Toyen, Lindfors F”rlag, K”ping, 1984, reproduced on page 11, no. 3 - Rita Bischof, Toyen Das Malerische Werk, Frankfurt am Main 1987, reproduced, p. 67, no. 8 - Lenka Bydzovska - Karel Srp, Toyen, Prague City Gallery, Prague 2000, reproduced, p. 47 - Karel Srp, Toyen and femme surr‚aliste, Mus‚e d'Art Moderne, Saint-tienne M‚tropole 2002, reproduced, p. 57 This is an iconic work of art and one of the most important oil paintings Toyen ever painted. This is also why the work was selected as the cover of the Succession Toyen catalogue that accompanied the auction of the artist?s estate in Paris in 1982. Assessed and consulted with Professor Jaromir Zemina, Dr Karel Srp, Dr Jiri Machalicky, Aneta Kopecka and Vladimir Lekes. Confirmation of authenticity attached. Toyen (Marie Cerminova) is one of the most important European artists of the twentieth century. Her multifaceted work started to develop after 1920, when she joined the avant-garde collective Devetsil (1923). Along with the painter and her artistic partner of nearly twenty years Jindrich Styrsky, she became one of the leading members of the Czech interwar avant-garde. She was the only woman to have penetrated into this closely-knit male community. In 1925, Toyen and Jindrich Styrskì left for Paris, where they stayed for several years and initiated their own art movement Artificialism. In 1934, Toyen, Styrskì and Vitezslav Nezval founded a Surrealist collective in Czechoslovakia that communicated closely with its Parisian counterpart. The painting La Dame de Pique, 1926 dates back to Toyen?s Parisian period. By the end of 1925 and under new influences she was subjected to in Paris, Toyen?s work changed in character. Her paintings became more abstract and with increasingly pronounced presence of geometric shapes, which can be traced back to the influence of the Parisian avant-garde. Toyen soaked up all the new trends and this is reflected in her work. In 1926, after a brief abstract period (manifested in paintings Tobogan, and Jarmark), figurative motifs return to Toyen?s work as is demonstrated by La Dame de Pique. In this work, Toyen moves the original flat motif into space, using the playing card to create an autonomous composition that is completely independent of the original motif. The painting La Dame de Pique determined the direction of Toyen?s oeuvre. This painting marked the beginnings of Toyen?s subsequent weaving of abstract forms with specific shapes, clearly demarcated by sharp lines and with recognisable subject matter. La Dame de Pique was the name of a famous novella, written by the Russian poet, writer and playwright Aleksandr Sergejevich Pushkin in 1833. It revolves around three mysterious playing cards that can bring one victory.The main character of the short story is an old countess, who knew the secret of the winning cards and dies of fright when an army officer threatens her with a gun. The ghost of the countess later reveals the secret of the cards to the officer, who hoped to use this to win a fortune. Instead, he loses all of his money and goes mad. Pushkin?s literary genius transformed this tragicomic story into a persuasive and powerful one ? just like Toyen?s painting. It is not entirely clear how far the poet and Toyen?s friend Vitezslav Nezval was involved in choosing of the painting?s title. La Dame de Pique appears in one his poems from January earlier that year. The painting La Dame de Pique is also painted by the Surrealist Georges Malkine later that year. Malkine was connected to the Czech couple?s works by his shared interest in abstract art with recognisable elements of the tangible world. It was precisely this relationship between surrealism and abstract art that was permeating the 1920s Paris that Styrskì a Toyen reacted to by founding a new art movement ? artificialism Malkine is perhaps the only painter of the formative period of surrealism, whose 1926 paintings related to the Parisian paintings of Styrsky and Toyen. For Malkine, this was a brief period, but a number of his works that he introduced at his solo show at Galerie surr‚alist‚ in January 1927, including Attraction, Picadilly, Temoignage ?i LïEau, come very close to Styrsky and Toyen for their combination of abstraction with fragments of reality ? The painting has been requested as a highlight to be featured at the upcoming exhibitionÿGrenzen in der Kunst. Tschechische Kunst in drei Generationÿat the prestigious Museum Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg between 4thÿNovember 2020 to 7thÿFebruary 2021. The painting will be also reproduced in the accompanying exhibition catalogue. This exhibition is organised under the leadership of the art historian Dr Agnes Tieze, who previously curated the exhibitionÿOskar Kokoschka und die Prager Kulturszeneÿthat opened in Regensburg and subsequently toured to Prague's National Gallery between 2014-2015.