Sleeping Nude

Sleeping Nude by South African artist, Maud Frances Eyston Sumner (1902-1985). A colourful, yet predominantly grey, blue and peach work of a nude female figure sitting cross-legged and with her eyes closed. This is supposedly a portrait of María Blanchard, a famous french artist with whom Sumner shared a flat in Paris during the 1930s. This particular painting is on the verso (or on the reverse) of the portrait painting, by Sumner of Bertha Hagart, the South African pianist, Short Biography: Sumner was born in Johannesburg and spent her formative years in her hometown. After matriculating in South Africa she went to Oxford to study Literature in 1922 where she obtained her master's degree. After that she studied painting at the Westminster School of Arts. In 1926 Sumner moved to Paris to study at the L'Académie de la Grande Chaumière in the Montparnasse district. She was highly influenced by Maurice Denis and George Desvallières. Her first solo exhibition was held at Galerie Druet in Paris in 1932. Sumner was diagnosed with a peculiar nerve disorder known as Guillaume Barré syndrome whilst in Paris in 1978. She opted to return to South Africa to continue her work as an artist and poet up until her death in 1985 at her home in Johannesburg.