A Wooded Path

Nora Summers was a British painter, printmaker and photographer who grew up in an engineering family. She studied at Bristol School of Art before progressing on to the Slade School in London where she developed under the teaching of Henry Tonks from 1907-1910. Her work was often characterised by its serene, still quality, here her landscape captures a forest scene as a poignant documentation of the moment- a fleeting memory, frozen in time. She was predominantly shown in the NEAC as well as the Walker Art Gallery. Summer’s contemporaries were captivated by her striking look and modernist style, many of whom used her as a muse for some of their works such as Augustus John, Henry Lampard, and Walter Russel. 

After meeting her husband Gerald Summers at Slade, the two honeymooned in Italy where they both worked closely on topographical paintings and etchings of Italian cities. Later the couple spent the summer of 1914 in Dorset working alongside the painter Derwent Lees until the impending First World War led locals to become sceptical of people who were not permanent residents. Later in life Summers, inspired by communal living she had witnessed among friends set up home with her family and Yvonne Macnamara’s family.  Yvonne was Nora’s muse and lover, and she painted many pictures of Yvonne with her newborn son Vincent. By 1939, Nora had become an alcoholic and by the end of the war she had given up both painting as well as photography, later dying of a stroke in 1948. 

Exhibitions: NEAC, The Summers Family and a solo exhibition at Sally Hunter Fine Art (1995 & 1998), solo exhibition at Chenil Gallery (1919), Twentieth Century Art: A Review of Modern Movement at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1914.

Museums: British Museum, Walker Art Gallery