Notes

In many respects Sumner was French in her artistic sensibilities. This is reflected in the development of her style throughout her career.¹

After a six year hiatus, Sumner returned to France in 1947. She found Paris significantly altered: ”I felt as though I was looking through a window into a new and sparkling country.”² Influenced by the Rayonnist movement as well by a fellow artist, Paul Berçot (who was married to her old friend Suzanne Tissier de Mallerais), Sumner’s style changed considerably.³ From this time a greater experimentation can be seen in her work and heralded her period of fragmentation.

In Bois du Boulogne the window pane of the canvas is criss-crossed by tree shapes in the foreground, with the placid lake visible beyond. Throughout the picture surface there is a rich patchwork of colour; layered, pared back and reworked, this brilliant palette leads a visual dance across the picture plane.

¹ Berman Esmé. Art & Artists of South Africa. Southern Book Publishers, Halfway House, 1994, page 444
² Ibid, page 445
³ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayonism