Toyen

Toyen, born Marie Čermínová (21 September 1902, Prague – 9 November 1980, Paris), was a Czech painter, drafter and illustrator and a member of the surrealist movement. Toyen left the family home at sixteen and it has been speculated it was due to sympathy towards anarchism.In 1923, the artist adopted the professional pseudonym Toyen. The name Toyen was derived from the French word 'citoyen,' meaning citizen. Toyen favored the gender-neutral name and would speak czech in the masculine singular form. Vítězslav Nezval wrote that Toyen "refused... to use the feminine endings" when speaking in the first person.