Maud Sumner

Notes

In 1932, the artist studied under Georges Desvallières and Maurice Denis at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and briefly under André Lhote. Exhibited at Galerie Druet, Salon des Tuileries and Salon d'Automne; included in Femmes Artistes Moderne in 1937. Major exhibition in 1967 at Galerie Jacques Massol, Paris.

When Maud Sumner was studying in Paris, she attended the Ateliers d'Art Sacré under studio masters George Desvallières and Maurice Denis, who took an interest in their students' painting and advancement as well as their welfare if they proved to be 'serious' students. Denis invited Sumner to stay at his home Le Prieuré, an old priory at St. Germain-en-Laye in the western suburbs of Paris. The artist recalled that the walls of the house were 'adorned with paintings, and not only his own. Here I could contemplate atleisure works by Sérusier, Roualt, Ogilon Redon, Cézanne, Renoir, Gauguin, Vuillard, etc., and a sculpture by Maillol. I was received as one of the large family, slept in a beautiful room overlooking the garden and the magnificent views he had so often painted… Here I painted interiors, garden scenes and portraits of 'le vieil oncle' (the old uncle) who was living with them. The present lot's subtitle, l'Après-midi d'un Faune (Afternoon of a Faun), refers to Stéphane Mallarmé's poem (1876), which inspired Claude Debussy's influential orchestral composition (1894), which in turn provided the basis for the ballet choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky (1912). In the poem, a faun unsuccessfully pursues the nymphs and naiads he encounters in the forest.¹

1. Source: Maud Sumner (1975) 'Recollections of Paris', Apollo, 102:164, October, pages 286 to 293.