Strauss & co - 11 November 2019, Johannesburg

96 SOUTH AFRICAN ARTISTS AND PARIS 80 Clément Sénèque SOUTH AFRICAN 1896–1930 Mont Blanc dated 1923 and inscribed with the artist’s name and the title on the reverse oil on canvas laid down on board 33,5 by 40,5 cm R30 000 – 50 000 ITEM NOTES The artist studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, under Professeur Héraut and Alfred Agache from 1921 to 1925. Participated in several Paris salons. Held a solo exhibition at the Maison des Artistes, Paris, in 1924. 81 Maud Sumner SOUTH AFRICAN 1902–1985 Maurice Denis’ Garden (l’Après-midi d’un Faune) c.1935 signed; inscribed with the title on the reverse watercolour and ink on sketchbook page 27 by 34 cm R10 000 – 15 000 ITEM NOTES In 1932 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 at leisure 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.