{
"data": {
"id": 124520,
"accession_number": "1945.46",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "The Pool (recto); Landscape (verso), c. 1916\u201319. William Sommer (American, 1867\u20131949). Oil on panel; framed: 99.7 x 79.4 x 6.4 cm (39 1/4 x 31 1/4 x 2 1/2 in.); unframed: 80.7 x 60 cm (31 3/4 x 23 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Silver Jubilee Treasure Fund, 1945.46",
"current_location": null,
"title": "The Pool (recto); Landscape (verso)",
"creation_date": "c. 1916\u201319",
"creation_date_earliest": 1916,
"creation_date_latest": 1919,
"artists_tags": [
"May Show",
"male"
],
"culture": [
"America, Ohio, Cleveland"
],
"technique": "oil on panel",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "American Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "American - Cleveland School",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Framed: 99.7 x 79.4 x 6.4 cm (39 1/4 x 31 1/4 x 2 1/2 in.); Unframed: 80.7 x 60 cm (31 3/4 x 23 5/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 0.997,
"height_inch": 39,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"width": 0.794,
"width_inch": 31,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"depth": 0.064,
"depth_inch": 2,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.5
},
"unframed": {
"height": 0.807,
"height_inch": 31,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.75,
"width": 0.6,
"width_inch": 23,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.625
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 382037,
"title": "The May Show: 27th Annual Exhibition of Works by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen",
"description": "The May Show: 27th Annual Exhibition of Works by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 1-June 10, 1945).",
"opening_date": "1945-05-01T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 355466,
"title": "Exhibition of the Month: The Artist, The River and the Sea",
"description": "Exhibition of the Month: The Artist, The River and the Sea. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 2-July 28, 1947).",
"opening_date": "1947-06-02T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311942,
"title": "William Sommer Memorial Exhibition",
"description": "William Sommer Memorial Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 1-December 10, 1950); Kraushaar Galleries, New York, NY (January 8-February 3, 1951).",
"opening_date": "1950-11-01T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 705520,
"title": "Work of Cleveland Artists for the 41st Annual Meeting of the College Art Association",
"description": "Work of Cleveland Artists for the 41st Annual Meeting of the College Art Association. The Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 29-31, 1953).",
"opening_date": "1953-01-29T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 517431,
"title": "Exhibition of Ohio Painters",
"description": "Exhibition of Ohio Painters. The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH (organizer) (April 4-30, 1967).",
"opening_date": "1967-04-04T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311444,
"title": "Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum",
"description": "Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).",
"opening_date": "1991-06-07T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Vienna, Austria, The American Embassy, 1978- : Art in Embassies Program, Department of State.",
"opening_date": "1978-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Massillon Museum (5/15/2010 - 9/12/2010), Riffe Gallery (11/4/2010 - 1/9/2011), and Southern Ohio Museum (3/5/2011 - 5/29/2011): \"Against the Grain: Modernism in the Midwest\", ex. cat. no. 59, p. 97.",
"opening_date": "2010-05-15T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Occasionally William Sommer painted on both sides of a canvas or panel in order to save money.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "In 1914, Sommer moved to Brandywine\u2014located halfway between Cleveland and Akron\u2014where he converted an abandoned schoolhouse into a studio that became an important meeting place for modern artists, poets, and musicians. This rural community provided inspirational subject matter for much of his subsequent work, including The Pool and Landscape, which also reveal his stylistic debt to French avant-garde art. Seeking freedom from convention by immersing himself in nature, Sommer explained, \u201cI believe art should be as spontaneous as the song of a bird.\u201d",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60515170"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "William Sommer Entry Card to 1945 May Show. Cleveland Museum of Art May Show Records, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMS07295/"
},
{
"citation": "Channing, Laurence, \"Before Neo: The May Show\", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 45 no. 07, September 2005",
"page_number": "Mentioned & reproduced: p. 6",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2005-07/page/6"
},
{
"citation": "Cole, Mark. \"The Cleveland Gallery.\" Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 49, no. 7 (September 2009): 5-7.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 7",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2009-07/page/4/mode/2up"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 56",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1945.46",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Silver Jubilee Treasure Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 124520,
"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": "1945-04-30T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1916,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1916\u201319",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "cover",
"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": "2026-09-02 11:03:05.813000"
}
}