Auction:
October Auction in Mánes
Author:
Toyen (Marie Čermínová)
Year:
(1902 – 1980)
Artwork:
La Dame de Pique
Created:
1926
Starting/Selling price:
1 150 000 EUR
Estimate:
1 346 150 – 1 538 460 EUR
Sold:
65 000 000 Kč
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, Musée 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 surréaliste, Musée d'Art Moderne, Saint-Étienne Métropole, 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 Förlag, Köping, 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 surréaliste, Musée d'Art Moderne, Saint-Étienne Métropole 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.
