William Sommer Art
American, 1867-1949
William Sommer is seen as a key person in bringing European modernism to Northeast Ohio. He was born in Detroit, Michigan, and in his youth apprenticed for seven years to a lithographer.
He briefly studied at an art academy in Germany and then worked as a lithographer in New York before moving to Cleveland, where he was awarded a major contract with the Otis Lithography Company. There he became friends with sculptor and painter William Zorach, and the two, determined to be fine artists, began painting together on weekends. They also became intrigued by avant-garde movements, especially after Zorach's trip to Paris in 1910.
In 1911, Sommer co-founded a group in Cleveland called the Kokoon Club, a mixed group of commercial artists and radical modernists who sought the freedom to pursue their independent tendencies. They converted a tailor's shop into a studio and held exhibitions and lectures and organized an annual masked ball that became the focus of Cleveland's bohemian life.
In 1913, he and his colleagues began painting at Brandywine, about 30 miles south of Cleveland and made a school house into a studio. They devoted increasing time to watercolor painting because they could work spontaneously and it would dry quickly. Rejecting the conventional ideas of beauty, they strove for the expression of emotion and spontaneity and fantasy. One of Sommer's most successful students was Charles Burchfield.
As he was perfecting his mature style, he had financial difficulties because he made his living from commercial lithography, which was becoming obsolete, and the Depression was hitting the nation causing him to lose his job. He became a WPA artist, doing murals in northeastern Ohio.
After his death at age 82, he was largely forgotten until 1980 when Hilton Kramer, a "New York Times" critic, praised his work. In May to July, 1994, the Ohio Arts Council held a retrospective of his work at the Riffe Gallery in Columbus. His work is found in many public collections including the National Museum of American Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.(Biography provided by WOLFS)
to
15
3
12
3
9
5
1
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
10
2
9
9
7
5
4
4
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
15
3
5
5
15
6,857
3,171
2,516
1,217
8
7
3
2
1
Artist: William Sommer
Wire Haired Girl and Cat
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Wire Haired Girl and Cat
Pen and ink with watercolor, c. 1930
Signed with the Estate stamp "B"
Provenance: Estate of the Artist
By descent to his son Edward
...
Category
1930s American Modern William Sommer Art
Materials
Watercolor
Nude, arms raised
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Nude
Matchstick and ink drawing heightened with conte crayon
c. 1925
Signed with the Estate Stamp "B"
Provenance: Joseph A. Erdelac (1914 -2005), Cleveland
Acqu...
Category
1920s Art Deco William Sommer Art
Materials
Ink
Deco Woman
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Deco Woman
Crayon on paper, c. 1920
Signed in ink lower left: "Wm. Sommer" (see photo)
Provenance:
Estate of the artist
Edwin Sommer (the artist’s son)
Jose...
Category
1910s Art Deco William Sommer Art
Materials
Crayon
Mid Century Modernist Watercolor Landscape with Horse, Cleveland School
By William Sommer
Located in Beachwood, OH
William Sommer (American, 1867–1949)
Spring Beauty
Watercolor on paper
Signed lower right
12.5 x 17 inches
18 x 22.75 inches, framed
William Sommer is seen as a key person in bringi...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern William Sommer Art
Materials
Watercolor
Early 20th Century Vibrant Modernist Painting, Still Life, Crane Fountain
By William Sommer
Located in Beachwood, OH
William Sommer (American, 1867-1949)
The Crane Fountain, ca. 1914-15
Oil on canvas
Unsigned
26 x 20 inches
32 1/2 x 26 1/4 inches, as framed
William So...
Category
1910s American Modern William Sommer Art
Materials
Oil
Wire Haired Girl and Cat
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Wire Haired Girl and Cat
Pen and ink with watercolor, c. 1930
Signed with the Estate stamp "B"
Provenance: Estate of the Artist
By d...
Category
1930s American Modern William Sommer Art
Materials
Watercolor
Nude Woman in Chair
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Nude Woman in Chair
Watercolor, gouache, ink, and pencil on heavy paper, c. 1930-35
Signed with the artist's Estate stamp lower right (see photo)
Note: ...
Category
1930s American Modern William Sommer Art
Materials
Watercolor
Standing Nude with Japanese Lanterns
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Standing Nude with Japanese Lanterns
Ink drawing on wove paper, mounted on wove paper support, c. 1916
Signed with the estate stamp B
Provenance: Esta...
Category
1910s American Modern William Sommer Art
Materials
Ink
Female Nude Study
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Female Nude Study
Graphite and crayon on wove paper, c. 1928
Signed with the Estate stamp "B" (see photo)
Provenance: Estate of the Artist
Edward Sommer (his so...
Category
1920s American Modern William Sommer Art
Materials
Crayon
Girl in Profile
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Girl in Profile
Lithographic crayon and watercolor on thin wove paper, c. 1930
Signed twice in pencil (see photos)
Provenance: Estate of the Artist
Edward Somme...
Category
1930s American Modern William Sommer Art
Materials
Watercolor
Head of a Young Woman with Blond Hair
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Head of a Young Woman with Blond Hair
Watercolor on paper mounted on rag paper support, c. 1930
Signed with the Estate Stamp B
Provenance: Estate of the Artist
...
Category
1930s American Modern William Sommer Art
Materials
Watercolor
Standing Female Nude
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Standing Female Nude
Match stick and ink drawing, c. 1925
Signed with the estate stamp B
Sheet size: 21 x 16 inches
Created at the Kakoon Arts Klu...
Category
1920s American Modern William Sommer Art
Materials
Ink
Still Life with Tromp L'Oeil
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Graphite and watercolor on a book page.
Signed in ink by the artist lower right corner
Provenance:
Estate of the artist (Estate No. 00916 verso)
Ray Sommer (the artist's son)
Joseph M. Erdelac (No. 18 JME verso)
Book page verso is an illustration of a Durer woodcut.
Category
1920s William Sommer Art
Materials
Watercolor
untitled (Still Life with Apples and Vase of Flowers)
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
[recto];untitled (Sketches for Still
Unsigned
9 1/2 x 12 inches (24.2 x 30.6 cm.)
Category
20th Century William Sommer Art
Materials
Graphite
Woman
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed in pencil lower left
Category
1920s William Sommer Art
Related Items
Female Sexual Nude
By Gaston Lachaise
Located in Miami, FL
Sotheby's New York . work is elegantly matted and framed with the Sotheby's sticker on verso
Category
1920s Art Deco William Sommer Art
Materials
Pencil
Glamorous Nude with Red Coat emerging from Curtain, Golden Age of Hollywood
By Jaro Fabry
Located in Miami, FL
Fabry's captures the hight of elegance in his loose style. Conte crayon, watercolor on watercolor paper Signed lower right Private collection Other works by this artist:
ca. 1940 - ...
Category
1940s Art Deco William Sommer Art
Materials
Crayon, Watercolor
Simka Simkhovitch WPA W/C Painting Gouache American Modernist Bouquet of Flowers
By Simka Simkhovitch
Located in Surfside, FL
Simka Simkhovitch (Russian/American 1893 - 1949)
This came with a small grouping from the artist's family, some were hand signed some were not.
These were studies for larger paintings.
This is a miniature watercolor and gouache vibrant, colorful bouquet of flowers in a vase.
Simka Simkhovitch (Симха Файбусович Симхович) (aka Simka Faibusovich Simkhovich) (Novozybkov, Russia May 21, 1885 O.S./June 2, 1885 N.S.—Greenwich, Connecticut February 25, 1949) was a Ukrainian-Russian Jewish artist and immigrant to the United States. He painted theater scenery in his early career and then had several showings in galleries in New York City. Winning Works Progress Administration (WPA) commissions in the 1930s, he completed murals for the post offices in Jackson, Mississippi and Beaufort, North Carolina. His works are in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Born outside Kyiv (Petrograd Ukraine) into a Jewish family who owned a small department store. During a severe case of measles when he was seven, Simcha Simchovitch sketched the views outside his window and decided to become an artist, over his father's objections. Beginning in 1905, he studied at the Grekov Odessa Art School and upon completion of his studies in 1911 received a recommendation to be admitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts. Though he enrolled to begin classes in architecture, painting, and sculpture at the Imperial Academy, he was dropped from the school roster in December because of the quota on the number of Jewish students and drafted into the army. Simchovitch served as a private in the 175th Infantry Regiment Baturyn [ru] until his demobilization in 1912. Re-enrolling in the Imperial Academy, he audited classes.
Simka Simkhovitch exhibited paintings and sculptures in 1918 as part of an exhibition of Jewish artists and in 1919 placed 1st in the competition "The Great Russian Revolution" with a painting called "Russian Revolution" which was hung in the State Museum of Revolution. In 1922, Simkha Simkhovitch exhibited at the International Book Fair in Florence (Italian: Fiera Internazionale del Libro di Firenze). In 1924, Simkhovitch came to the United States to make illustrations for Soviet textbooks and decided to immigrate instead. Initially he supported himself by doing commercial art and a few portrait commissions. In 1927, he was hired to paint a screen for a scene in the play "The Command to Love" by Fritz Gottwald and Rudolph Lothar which was playing at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. Art dealers began clamoring for the screen and Simkhovitch began a career as a screen painter for the theater. Catching the attention of the screenwriter, Ernest Pascal, he worked as an illustrator for Pascal, who then introduced him to gallery owner, Marie Sterner. Simkhovitch's works appeared at the Marie Sterner Gallery beginning with a 1927 exhibit and were repeated the following year. Simkhovitch had an exhibit in 1929 at Sterner's on circus paintings. In 1931, he held a showing of works at the Helen Hackett Gallery, in New York City and later that same year he was one of the featured artists of a special exhibit in San Francisco at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park. The exhibit was coordinated by Marie Sterner and included four watercolors, including one titled "Nudes". He is of the generation of Russian Soviet artists such as Isaac Pailes, Serge Charchoune, Marc Chagall, Chana Orloff, Isaac Ilyich Levitan, and Ossip Zadkine.
In 1936, Simkhovitch was selected to complete the mural for the WPA Post office project in Jackson, Mississippi. The mural was hung in the post office and courthouse in 1938 depicted a plantation theme. Painted on the wall behind the judge’s bench, “Pursuits of Life in Mississippi”, a depiction of black workers engaged in manual labor amid scenes of white professionals and socialites, was eventually covered over in later years during renovations due to its stereotypical African American imagery. Simka painted what he thought was typical of Jackson. His impression of pre-civil rights Mississippi was evidently Greek Revival column houses, weeping willow trees, working class families, and the oppression of African Americans. He painted African American men picking cotton, while a white man took account of the harvest and a white judge advised a white family, calling it Pursuits of Life in Mississippi.
Though clearly endorsed by the government and initially generally well-received, the mural soon raised concerns with locals as the climate toward racial segregation began to change. The main concern was whether depictions that show African Americans in subjugated societal roles should be featured in a courtroom. The following year, his painting "Holiday" won praise at an exhibition in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1940, Simkhovitch's second WPA post office project was completed when four murals, "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat", "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright", "Sand Ponies" and "Canada Geese" were installed in Beaufort, North Carolina. The works were commissioned in 1938 and did not generate the controversy that the Jackson mural had. The main mural is "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright" and depicts a shipwreck which had occurred in Beaufort in 1866. "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat" depicted the lighthouse built in 1859 and the mail boat that was running mail during the time which Simkhovitch was there. The boat ran mail for the area until 1957. "Sand Ponies" shows the wild horses common to the North Carolina barrier islands and "Canada Geese" showed the importance of hunting and fishing in the area. All four murals were restored in the 1990s by Elisabeth Speight, daughter of two other WPA muralists, Francis Speight...
Category
1930s American Modern William Sommer Art
Materials
Gouache, Board, Watercolor
Waiting for the Bus in a Blizzard- WPA American Scene 1938 NYC Modernism Realism
By Maurice Kish
Located in New York, NY
Waiting for the Bus in a Blizzard- WPA American Scene 1938 NYC Modernism Realism. 16 x 16 inches, Oil on board, Signed and dated 1938 lower left.
...
Category
1930s American Modern William Sommer Art
Materials
Oil, Board
"Winter" American Modernism WPA Regionalism Landscape Mid-Century Magic Realism
By Dale Nichols
Located in New York, NY
"Winter" American Modernism WPA Regionalism Landscape Mid-Century Magic Realism. 30 x 40 inches. Oil on canvas, c. 1960s, Signed lower right.
As we list the painting now, the work is currently being cleaned, restored and a hand carved frame is being built. Additional photos will be uploaded as soon as possible.
Our gallery, Helicline Fine Art, just launched our new digital exhibition: American Art: The WPA and Beyond. Three dozen paintings, works on paper and sculptures which are available here on 1stDibs. In person viewings can be arranged by appointment at our midtown Manhattan gallery.
Provenance:
"Winter" was originally purchased by Stanley Byer. Mr. Byer owned homes in Key West, New York City, and Washington, D.C. He purchased the painting from Dunning Auction in 1984 in Elgin, Illinois. Mr. Byer was related to Abraham Weiss from Florida. Saul Babbin, now deceased was a cousin of Mr. Weiss. I purchased the painting from Joy Babbin, Mr. Babbin's wife, now living in from New Mexico.
Dale Nichols (1905 – 1995) Artist, printmaker, illustrator, watercolorist, designer, writer and lecturer, Nichols did paintings that reflected his rural background of Nebraska where he was born in David City, a small town. Although he did much sketching outdoors, most of his paintings were completed in his studio and often included "numerology, magic squares...
Category
1960s American Modern William Sommer Art
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Untitled (Young Man Reading Beside his Dog)
By Harold Haydon
Located in Chicago, IL
A watercolor of a man reading beside his dog by artist Harold Haydon. Provenance: Estate of the Artist. Estate stamped on reverse.
Harold Emerson Haydon was born in Fort William,...
Category
1950s American Modern William Sommer Art
Materials
Watercolor
Original Antique American Landscape Fishing Delaware River Oil Painting Framed
Located in Buffalo, NY
A lovely scene adeptly painted by listed American artist and illustrator Jan Nosek (1876 - 1966) who was active in the late 19th and early 20th Century. This scene created in the ea...
Category
1910s American Modern William Sommer Art
Materials
Oil, Board
L V Guirand de Scevola (1871-1950) A young naked woman standing , Signed pastel
By Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola
Located in Paris, FR
Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scevola (1871-1950)
A young naked woman standing
Pastel on paper
Signed lower right and dedicated, "à JM Fournol (?)"
63 x 40 cm
In fairly good condition:...
Category
1920s Art Deco William Sommer Art
Materials
Pastel
Study, preparatory work for “La Princesse”, watercolor and pencil on paper
Located in PARIS, FR
Raphael DELORME (1886-1962)
Study, preparatory work for “La Princesse”
Watercolor and pencil on paper
Annotated “La Princesse”
30,5 x 22,5 cm
Small folds and small stains
Born in 18...
Category
1930s Art Deco William Sommer Art
Materials
Pencil, Watercolor
Cloud Over - Vibrant Blue Southwest Skyscape Landscape Pop Art Original Painting
By Will Beger
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Will Beger and his contemporary-minimalist paintings, take on an entirely unique approach to southwest art. Influenced by his youth and inspired by nature, he effortlessly captures a...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern William Sommer Art
Materials
Acrylic, Mixed Media, Wood Panel
Dancer Study
By Christian Bérard
Located in London, GB
Pen and ink on paper, 27cm x 20cm, (54cm x 48cm framed). Provenance: Alexander Iolas Gallery, New York.
Bérard, an artist, fashion illustrator and de...
Category
1930s Art Deco William Sommer Art
Materials
Paper, Pen
Art Deco Pulp cover or pin-up magazine cover
By Peter Driben
Located in Miami, FL
Pulp cover or pin-up magazine cover
signed lower left
some foxing throughout
work is framed
Category
1920s Art Deco William Sommer Art
Materials
Oil
Previously Available Items
Flapper in a Black Hat
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Flapper in a Black Hat
Ink and watercolor on paper, mounted to support paper, c. 1915
Signed with the artist's Estate Stamp B lower right (see photo)
Condition: colors very fresh and...
Category
1920s American Modern William Sommer Art
Materials
Watercolor
Head of a Man (recto) Sketch of a Man's Head (verso)
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Head of a Man (recto)
Sketch of a Man's Head (verso)
Ink and black conte crayon, c. 1920
Signed with Estate Stamp "B" lower right
Professionally repaired voids along top edge, all fo...
Category
1920s American Modern William Sommer Art
Materials
Chalk
Self Portrait
By William Sommer
Located in Greenwich, CT
Cubist infleunced self-portrait of William Sommer .
Great execution and economy of means , proof of the artist's talent.
As one of the first artists in Ohio to embrace early mo...
Category
1930s Cubist William Sommer Art
Materials
Ink, Watercolor
Untitled (Sailor, boats, dock, and waves)
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed with estate stamp B
Category
1920s William Sommer Art
Materials
Chalk, Graphite
Still Life (with pipe, apple, sugar bowl and cup and saucer)
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed with estate stamp C
Provenance:
Joseph M. Erdelac, Cleveland, Inv. # M.J.M.E. 29
Category
1920s William Sommer Art
Materials
Graphite, Watercolor
Dancing Nudes
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed with Estate Stamp B
Category
1910s William Sommer Art
William Sommer art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic William Sommer art available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of art to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of orange and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by William Sommer in paint, watercolor, ink and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large William Sommer art, so small editions measuring 8 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Virginia Dehn, Leon Kelly, and Jan Matulka. William Sommer art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $550 and tops out at $10,000, while the average work can sell for $2,750.