Notes

"There is always something in the background with [Sumner]. It is possible to have one of [her] interiors in the house for a month, and one fine day to discover a figure in the corner, and not only a figure, but a whole story.” Julius Meier-Graefe¹

Maud Sumner returned to Paris in 1929 to continue her studies under Maurice Denis, a founder member of Des Nabis.² Sumner did not specifically ascribe to the aesthetic theories of Denis but she wished to benefit from the “lively spirit of adventure, a richness of colour and a perfection of taste”³ that she had found lacking at the London School of Painting. Student and teacher formed a close bond, which saw Sumner joining Denis and his family for holidays at their home at St Germain-en-Laye,⁴ where the walls were adorned with the works of (amongst others) Jean-Édouard Vuillard.

Vuillard and his contemporary, Jules Bonnard, were best known for the Intimist-style⁵ applied in their approach to interiors and still life paintings. Sumner drew on their visual literacy in her works. Model in a Parisian Interior captures her subject sitting in quiet repose in a gently lit room.⁶

¹ Meyer-Graefe was German art critic and historian
² Formed in 1888 “the Nabis” whose ethos is perhaps best explained by Maurice Denis: “Remember that a picture, before being a battle horse, a nude, an anecdote or whatnot, is essentially a flat surface covered with colours assembled in a certain order.” The most prominent members were Édouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, Félix Vallotton, Maurice Denis and later the sculptor Aristide Maillol.
³ Alexander, L. , Bedford, E., Cohen, E.,Paris and South African Artists: 1850-1965, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, 1988, page 40
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ To convey the warmth, comfort, and quiet isolation of interior scenes, they used the Impressionist broken-colour technique of capturing the light and atmosphere of the fleeting moment. But unlike the Impressionists, who derived their colours from precise observation of the visual world, they deliberately exaggerated and distorted natural colours to convey a quiet intimacy to their interiors.
⁶ A work titled Muse, 72 rue Notre Dame des Champs shows the same model in a similar pose within the same interior (Eglington, Maud Sumner, page 8)