William Sommer (1867–1949) was an American Modernist painter. William Sommer was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

in 1867. He was largely self-taught, but received instruction early on from artist and commercial lithographer Julius Melchers. He apprenticed with the Detroit Calvert Lithograph Company for seven years but in 1890 he traveled to Europe where he trained with Professors Johann Herterich, Ludwig Schmid, and

Adolph Menzel Adolph Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel (8 December 18159 February 1905) was a German Realist artist noted for drawings, etchings, and paintings. Along with Caspar David Friedrich, he is considered one of the two most prominent German painters of th ...

. In 1907 he accepted a position with the Otis Lithograph Company of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

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and in 1911 he co-founded the

Kokoon Arts Club The Kokoon Arts Club, sometimes spelled Kokoon Arts Klub, was a Bohemian artists group founded in 1911 by Carl Moellman, William Sommer and Elmer Brubeck to promote Modernism in Cleveland, Ohio. Moellman had been a member of New York City ...

to promote modern art in Cleveland. In 1914 he relocated to

Brandywine, Ohio Brandywine is an unincorporated community in Summit County, in the U.S. state of Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly ...

. He worked on several large-scale murals for the

Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administrati ...

, including ''Rural Homestead'' in the

Geneva, Ohio Geneva is a city in Ashtabula County, Ohio, United States. The area which would become Geneva was originally settled in 1805, and was incorporated as a city in 1958. It is named after Geneva, New York, Geneva, New York (state), New York. The pop ...

post office.

Biographical Highlights

*1878-1883: Studies with Julius Melchers *1881-1888: Works as lithographic apprentice in Detroit for Calvert Lithograph Co. *1888-1907: Works as lithographic journeyman in Boston, England, Munich, and NYC; Sommer studied fine art in Munich for a year in 1890, then returned to New York City and married. Sommer continued to work as lithographer and privately concentrated on his own art. *1892: Sommer joins NYC's bohemian artists' group known as the Kit Kat Klub. *1907: Sommer moves his wife and children to Cleveland where he worked for Otis Lithograph Co.; the Sommer family ultimately settled in Brandywine, Ohio (today Northfield). Sommer remained there, working in Cleveland and painting in watercolors and oils at home and on outdoor junkets. *1912- : Sommer co-founds Cleveland's bohemian artists' group known as the

; exhibits in the 1913 Taylor Show, Cleveland's response to the

Armory Show The 1913 Armory Show, also known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, was a show organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors in 1913. It was the first large exhibition of modern art in America, as well as one of ...

in NYC; frequents the Laukhuff Bookstore with other members of the Kokoon Club; this club was known for its evening activities of "painting, talking, reading and--not infrequently--drinking. . . .the Kokoon Club would still be honored today as the home-away-from-home of William Sommer."Northern Ohio Live, November 1982 *1929: Sommer loses his job as a lithographer to the new offset printing process *1933: Sommer exhibits at the Whitney Biennial and the Museum of Modern Art, both in NYC; paints mural for the

Cleveland Public Hall Public Auditorium (also known as Public Hall) is a multi-purpose performing arts, entertainment, sports, and exposition facility located in the civic center district of downtown Cleveland, Ohio. The 10,000-capacity main auditorium shares its stag ...

as part of the

Public Works of Art Project The Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) was a New Deal program designed to employ artists that operated from 1933 to 1934. The program was headed by Edward Bruce, under the United States Treasury Department with funding from the Civil Works Admin ...

*1934: Sommer paints a mural for the

Cleveland Public Library Cleveland Public Library, located in Cleveland, Ohio, operates the Main Library on Superior Avenue in downtown Cleveland, 27 branches throughout the city, a mobile library, a Public Administration Library in City Hall, and the Ohio Library for the ...

*1937-1949: Sommer receives numerous exhibitions and one-artist shows in NYC, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Youngstown, Oberlin, and Akron Artist William Sommer spent most of his life in Summit County near Brandywine Falls. Sommer was an acknowledged leader of the " Cleveland School," a group of Cleveland-based artists who were active from the teens through the mid-1940s. These artists formed the core of an art community whose size and activity paralleled the growth and energy of Cleveland during that period. Sommer painted from the turn of the 20th century into the 1940s, absorbing the ideas of the Cubists and other adventurous artists of that time and integrating these concepts and techniques into his own work. His subjects were thoroughly rooted in the American midwest, however; favorite subjects included young children and farm scenes. He continued to paint until his death in 1949.

Hart Crane Harold Hart Crane (July 21, 1899 – April 27, 1932) was an American poet. Provoked and inspired by T. S. Eliot, Crane wrote modernist poetry that was difficult, highly stylized, and ambitious in its scope. In his most ambitious work, '' The Brid ...

dedicated his 1927 poem ''Sunday Morning Apples'' to Sommer.

Citations

External links

William Sommer Biography: Hollis Taggart Galleries
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sommer, William 1867 births 1949 deaths 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters Modern painters Fauvism Cleveland School (arts community) American lithographers Place of death missing Public Works of Art Project artists Artists from Detroit Painters from Michigan Painters from Ohio People from Summit County, Ohio American muralists Federal Art Project artists 20th-century American printmakers 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists 20th-century lithographers