Das einsame Haus

Künstler*in Toyen (1902 Prag – 1980 Paris)

Object typeGemälde
MediumÖl auf Leinwand
Dimensions
59 × 73 cm
SignatureSign. und dat. rechts unten: TOYEN / 45
Inventory numberLg 1465
Locations Oberes Belvedere
Credit Line2012 Dauerleihgabe Sammlung Rotter
Born in Prague as Marie Čermínová, the artist soon adopted the gender-neutral pseudonym Toyen, derived from the citoyens (citizens) of the French Revolution. She lived in the early 1920s in Paris, where she became a central figure in the Surrealist movement. Throughout her life she was interested in transcending boundaries between reality and fiction and between gender stereotypes. Toyen painted this mysterious scene, evocative of isolation and destruction, at the end of World War II. She offers a counterbalance to the catastrophe, however, with the white dove and tools as symbols of hope for a future under different portents.