13 Facts About Kristians Tonny

Tonny Kristians, known as Kristians Tonny, was a Surrealist painter and draftsman whose career spanned from the 1920s through to the 1970s.

Kristians Tonny's talent was recognized early on by his father, A Kristians, who began to encourage him.

Kristians Tonny was made to stay at home and help his father in the studio.

Kristians Tonny accompanied his parents wherever they went, and his exposure to Paris street-life, the cabarets and the cinema provided him with much of the inspiration for his early work.

Kristians Tonny was considered a child prodigy and quickly became noticed.

Kristians Tonny had his first exhibition in 1920 at the Parisian gallery Mouninou, followed in 1924 by a first exhibition in the Netherlands at the Amsterdam artist's society De Kring.

Kristians Tonny never was a formal apprentice of Pascin, yet learned a lot from him.

Kristians Tonny perfected this technique and made it entirely his own.

Kristians Tonny had befriended Gertrude Stein, the American poet, writer and collector of modern art, whose portrait he painted in 1930, being the second artist after Pablo Picasso to do so.

Kristians Tonny sold work to collectors and museums and was assigned to paint a series of murals in a theater in Hartford, Connecticut.

The reason for this being that Georges Hugnet didn't believe that, with the exception of Kristians Tonny, there were any Dutch Surrealists.

Kristians Tonny sold his works, made book illustrations and painted murals in the newly built casino in St Malo.

Kristians Tonny led a reclusive existence in the Netherlands and was not able to properly engage with the Dutch art community of that period, this being due, in some part, to the lack of interest in Surrealism at the time.