Notes

Maud Sumner’s work displays marked influences from the three locations she spent most of her life, South Africa, London and Paris. After studying painting at Westminster School of Arts in London, Sumner went on to attend the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, drawn to the Parisian art scene, seeking an inspiration she had not yet found in London. It was there that she was introduced to a number of fellow artists and mentors, including Georges Desvallières and Maurice Denis. With so many artists from all over the world studying, working and exhibiting in Paris, Sumner lent into the culture of exchanging ideas and criticism with other artists, commenting on each other’s work, and discussing theories and views on art. She developed the habit of visiting and painting in other artists’ ateliers as well as her own, wanting to keep her style diverse. For five years Sumner routinely visited the Ateliers de l’Art Sacré (the studio of Georges Desvallières and Maurice Denis), she shared an atelier with Maria Blanchard, developing a close friendship, worked briefly with Bissière in the Académie Ranson, and occupied a studio in rue Campagne-Première from 1936–1970. Sumner immersed herself in the depiction of everyday life, capturing the foreign landscapes of Europe, post-impressionist styles, and French Intimism.

Her first solo exhibition in Paris was in 1932 at the Galerie Druet, orchestrated by Denis. Sumner displayed a series of snowy landscapes and landscapes completed in England and France over the previous two years. It was during her foundational time in Paris that she developed the genre and style for which she has become most celebrated and the formal qualities of the style she developed remained with her throughout her career.