William Sommer
(1867-1949), renowned painter & watercolorist, and an acknowledged leader of the Cleveland School. In 1907 he accepted a position with the Otis Lithograph Co. of
Cleveland and in 1911 co-founded theKokoon Arts Club to promote modern art in Cleveland. In 1914 he relocated to Brandywine, Ohio. He worked on several large-scale murals for the Federal Art Project, including Rural Homestead in the Geneva, Ohio post office. Sommer painted from the turn of the 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. 1933: Sommer exhibits at the Whitney Biennial and the Museum of Modern Art, 1937-1949: Sommer receives numerous exhibitions and one-artist shows in NYC, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Youngstown, Oberlin, and Akron. Hart Crane dedicated his 1927 poem Sunday Morning Apples to Sommer. Examples of his now coveted paintings at
Stanley Thomas Clough – Work Projects Administration Poster Collection (Library of Congress)