{
"data": {
"id": 109005,
"accession_number": "1927.177",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Nude Figure, c. 1927. William Sommer (American, 1867\u20131949). Sanguine; sheet: 41.2 x 25.4 cm (16 1/4 x 10 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland, 1927.177",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Nude Figure",
"creation_date": "c. 1927",
"creation_date_earliest": 1922,
"creation_date_latest": 1927,
"artists_tags": [
"male",
"May Show"
],
"culture": [
"America, Ohio, Cleveland"
],
"technique": "sanguine",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Drawings",
"collection": "DR - American - Cleveland School",
"type": "Drawing",
"measurements": "Sheet: 41.2 x 25.4 cm (16 1/4 x 10 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.412,
"height_inch": 16,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"width": 0.254,
"width_inch": 10,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
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"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "In ink, lower right: \"Wm. Sommer (signed)\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"inscription": "Watermark across top and bottom: \"EN LEDGER BUCKEYE\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 381573,
"title": "The May Show: 9th Annual Exhibition of Works by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen",
"description": "The May Show: 9th Annual Exhibition of Works by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 27-June 5, 1927).",
"opening_date": "1927-04-27T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 304643,
"title": "The May Shows of the Past",
"description": "The May Shows of the Past. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 5-July 24, 1963).",
"opening_date": "1963-04-05T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 301224,
"title": "May Show Retrospective - 50 Years",
"description": "May Show Retrospective - 50 Years. The Cleveland Museum of Art (April 23-June 16, 1968).",
"opening_date": "1968-04-23T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "William Sommer (the artist) [1867-1949]",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1927",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Print Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, OH, given to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1927",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "May 13, 1927-",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": null,
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80001087"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1927.177-nude-figure"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "William Sommer Entry Card to 1927 May Show. Cleveland Museum of Art May Show Records, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMS01415"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1927.177",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
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"width": "555",
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"filesize": "313691",
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"print": {
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"full": {
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"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 109005,
"creators": [
{
"id": 9405,
"description": "William Sommer (American, 1867\u20131949)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Born in Detroit to a family of German immigrants, Sommer first studied drawing at the age of 11 with Julius Gari Melchers. Pursuing a career in commercial lithography, Sommer apprenticed at Calvert Lithography in Detroit, 1881\u201388, and subsequently worked at various lithography shops in Boston, New York, and England. In 1890 he went abroad for a year of study at the Kunstakademie in Munich. In 1891 he returned to New York and spent the next 16 years working as a commercial lithographer. In 1907 he moved to Cleveland to work for the Otis Lithograph Company, where he became friendly with William Zorach. Around 1910, and under the influence of Abel Warshawsky, Sommer began to experiment with impressionist colors; subsequently he experimented with a fauvist palette. He exhibited with the Cleveland \u201csecessionists\u201d at the Rorimer-Brooks Studios in early 1911 and cofounded the Kokoon Klub that summer. Around 1914 he moved to Brandywine, a rural valley about 20 miles south of Cleveland, where he converted an abandoned schoolhouse into a studio that became an important meeting place for modern artists, poets, and musicians. In May 1918 Sommer designed stage sets and programs for a production of Everyman by the Cleveland Play House. He exhibited in the annual May Shows at the Cleveland Museum of Art (1922\u201350). In the 1930s and 1940s he exhibited on a regular basis in Cleveland, Chicago, and New York. During the Depression he was employed by various New Deal art programs to paint murals for Cleveland Public Hall (1933), Cleveland Public Library (1934), the post office in Geneva, Ohio (1938), and the Akron Board of Education (1941). After the death of his wife in 1945, he was struck by chronic bouts of depression and alcoholism. Sommer died in Brandywine.
\"Transformations in Cleveland Art\" (CMA, 1996), p. 238",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1867",
"death_year": "1949",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1927-05-13T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1922,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1927",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-08-03 14:08:57.231000"
}
}