{
"data": {
"id": 161712,
"accession_number": "2000.73",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Self-Portrait, c. 1917. William Sommer (American, 1867\u20131949). 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",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Self-Portrait",
"creation_date": "c. 1917",
"creation_date_earliest": 1912,
"creation_date_latest": 1922,
"artists_tags": [
"May Show",
"male"
],
"culture": [
"America, Ohio, Cleveland"
],
"technique": "watercolor and black crayon",
"support_materials": [
{
"description": "cream(1) wove paper",
"watermarks": []
}
],
"department": "Drawings",
"collection": "DR - American 20th Century",
"type": "Drawing",
"measurements": "Sheet: 30.3 x 23.9 cm (11 15/16 x 9 7/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.303,
"height_inch": 11,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.9375,
"width": 0.239,
"width_inch": 9,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.4375
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"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]",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 311873,
"title": "Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946",
"description": "Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 19-July 21, 1996).",
"opening_date": "1996-05-19T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 177916,
"title": "Burchfield to Schreckengost: Cleveland Art of the Jazz Age",
"description": "Burchfield to Schreckengost: Cleveland Art of the Jazz Age. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 28-July 18, 2004).",
"opening_date": "2004-03-28T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Joseph M. Erdelac, Cleveland; [Corcoran Fine Arts Limited, Inc., Cleveland Heights]",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "There is no record of other artistic talent in William Sommer\u2019s family.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Sommer was a prolific watercolorist and produced some of his finest works in the medium. This rare, early self-portrait embodies the style of forceful line and color he began using around 1912 under the influence of the German Expressionists. The intense self-analysis and projection of personality may also reflect his fascination with the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, especially its exaltation of the artist as an oracle of revolutionary ideas. The sitter\u2019s intense gaze also hints at his rebellious personality. A co-worker at the lithography shop where Sommer earned his living recalled, \u201cI remember how fed up he got working day and night at the shop, how depressed he was and how desperate to get some painting done on Sundays\u2014 and holiday.\u201d Another co-worker commented, \u201cBill hated to go back to his job. He reminded us constantly that he was being crucified at the lithography plant.\u201d",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79984799"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "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": ""
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, \u201cRecent Acquisitions Press Release,\u201d October 6, 2000, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 3",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/cmapr4354"
},
{
"citation": "Waldman, Lawrence. The Cleveland Salon 1920-1924. Cleveland: Lawrence Waldman Fine Arts, 2024.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 22, fig. 14",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2000.73",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 161712,
"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": "2000-09-18T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1912,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1917",
"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": "2026-07-04 11:16:29.847000"
}
}