id: 161712 accession number: 2000.73 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2000.73 updated: 2024-08-08 15:17:18.232000 Self-Portrait, c. 1917. William Sommer (American, 1867–1949). Watercolor and black crayon; sheet: 30.3 x 23.9 cm (11 15/16 x 9 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 2000.73 title: Self-Portrait title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1917 creation date earliest: 1912 creation date latest: 1922 current location: creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: --- culture: America, Ohio, Cleveland technique: watercolor and black crayon department: Drawings collection: DR - American 20th Century type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * William Sommer (American, 1867–1949) - artist 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, 1881–88, 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 “secessionists” 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 (1922–50). 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 --- measurements: Sheet: 30.3 x 23.9 cm (11 15/16 x 9 7/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: cream(1) wove paper watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: signed [estate stamp?], lower right, in gray ink?: Wm Sommer ; VERSO, upper left, in graphite: B- [erased] ; 12 x 9 3/8 V / D 28 20 x 16 ; center, in graphite: J.M.E. 31 [sideways] translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946 opening date: 1996-05-19T04:00:00 Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 19-July 21, 1996). title: Burchfield to Schreckengost: Cleveland Art of the Jazz Age opening date: 2004-03-28T00:00:00 Burchfield to Schreckengost: Cleveland Art of the Jazz Age. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 28-July 18, 2004). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Joseph M. Erdelac, Cleveland; [Corcoran Fine Arts Limited, Inc., Cleveland Heights] date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Robinson, William H., David Steinberg, and Cleveland Museum of Art. Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art: Distributed by Ohio University Press, 1996. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 87, fig. 86; Mentioned: p. 250, no. 189 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisitions Press Release,” October 6, 2000, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. page number: Mentioned: p. 3 url: https://archive.org/details/cmapr4354 --- IMAGES