Toyen sweatshirt

Marie Čermínová was born in Smíchov in 1902, worked for example in a soap factory, but studied at the School of Applied Arts. Her nickname Toyen was coined by Jaroslav Seifert, one of her close friends from the artistic circle. The painter herself rejected her old name, wore masculine clothes and even referred to herself in the masculine.





She was a lifelong friend of Jindřich Štýrský, with whom she worked in a fashion studio, joined Devětsil and travelled to Paris. But in addition to the aforementioned Styrsky and Seifert, she was also a friend of André Breton and Henry Heisler, a famous artist of Jewish origin whom Toyen hid in her home during World War II. He slept in a bathtub in a small apartment in Žižkov.





After the war, Toyen moved permanently to Paris, where she was able to create to the full among her friends. She died in 1980, and the Czechoslovak press at the time did not report her death.