Strauss & co - 11 November 2019, Johannesburg

95 SOUTH AFRICAN ARTISTS AND PARIS 78 Ruth Everard Haden SOUTH AFRICAN 1904–1992 Portrait of Edith King signed; inscribed with the title on the reverse oil on canvas 92,5 by 92,5 cm, unframed R90 000 – 120 000 ITEM NOTES The artist established her own studio in Boulevard Edgar Quinet in 1924, also attended classes at the Colarossi Art School in the Rue de la Grande Chaumière. Showed work at the Salon d’Automne in 1925. Studied under André Lhote in 1927. 79 Maud Sumner SOUTH AFRICAN 1902–1985 Woman Seated at a Mirror signed oil on canvas 61,5 by 52 cm R350 000 – 500 000 ITEM 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. Maurice Denis, Maud Sumner’s teacher, mentor and friend while she studied in Paris, was a friend and colleague of the post-impressionist painters Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard, whom Sumner met while staying at the home of the Denis family. The present lot recalls the intimate domestic scenes painted by both Bonnard and Vuillard, their ‘figures in an interior’, usually women, shown seated, in conversation, sewing, in the garden, or in front of a mirror. The woman in this painting wears a summery floral dress whose pattern of red and purple flowers links compositionally to the red blooms on the dresser and the warm tones in the woman’s face. She appears at first to be examining her own reflection and the flower she is holding in her hand, but she also looks through the mirror and back out into the room, making eye contact with the painter and the viewer.