William Sommer - Biographical Highlights

Biographical Highlights

• 1878-1883: Studies with Julius Melchers
• 1881-1888: Works as lithographic apprentice in Detroit for Calvert Lithograph Co.
• 1888-1907: Works as lithographic journeyman in Boston, England, Munich, and NYC; Sommer studied fine art in Munich for a year in 1890, then returned to New York City and married. Sommer continued to work as lithographer and privately concentrated on his own art.
• 1892: Sommer joins NYC's bohemian artists' group known as the Kit Kat Klub.
• 1907: Sommer moves his wife and children to Cleveland where he worked for Otis Lithograph Co.; the Sommer family ultimately settled in Brandywine, Ohio (today Northfield). Sommer remained there, working in Cleveland and painting in watercolors and oils at home and on outdoor junketts.
• 1912- : Sommer co-founds Cleveland's bohemian artists' group known as the Kokoon Arts Club; exhibits in the 1913 Taylor Show, Cleveland's response to the Armory Show in NYC; frequents the Laukhuff Bookstore with other members of the Kokoon Club; this club was known for its evening activities of "painting, talking, reading and--not infrequently--drinking. . . .the Kokoon Club would still be honored today as the home-away-from-home of William Sommer."
• 1929: Sommer loses his job as a lithographer to the new offset printing process
• 1933: Sommer exhibits at the Whitney Biennial and the Museum of Modern Art, both in NYC; paints mural for the Cleveland Public Hall as part of the Public Works of Art Project
• 1934: Sommer paints a mural for the Cleveland Public Library
• 1937-1949: Sommer receives numerous exhibitions and one-artist shows in NYC, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Youngstown, Oberlin, and Akron

Artist William Sommer spent most of his life in Summit County near Brandywine Falls. Sommer was an acknowledged leader of the "Cleveland School," a group of Cleveland-based artists who were active from the teens through the mid-1940s. These artists formed the core of an art community whose size and activity paralleled the growth and energy of Cleveland during that period. Sommer painted from the turn of the 19th to 20th century into the 1940s, absorbing the ideas of the Cubists and other adventurous artists of that time and integrating these concepts and techniques into his own work. His subjects were thoroughly rooted in the American midwest, however; favorite subjects included young children and farm scenes.

He continued to paint until his death in 1949.