Artist: William Sommer (American, 1867–1949)
Medium: Oil on board
Signature: Estate stamp signature lower right
Dimensions:
17.75 in. h. x 23.5 in. w., board
27 in. h. x 31.5 in. w., as framed
Description:
William Sommer’s Brandywine Landscapes
At one point William Sommer seemed destined to go down in history as one of America’s great Modernist painters, yet on a national level his name has maintained a level of relative obscurity. One possible explanation for this omission is that Sommer inadvertently alienated a portion of his audience by refusing to fully commit to one mode of image making. Sommer’s non-binary approach to representation and abstraction is perhaps most evident in his paintings of Brandywine, Ohio, in which Sommer approaches traditional, even mundane subject matter from a Modernist standpoint, saturating Brandywine’s sprawling hills with Fauve-like color and altering the natural landscape to create enchanting distortions in perspective.
Other works by William Sommer

Seated Female William Sommer

Woman with Striped Stockings, ca. 1918 William Sommer

Solitude, ca. 1920 William Sommer

Winter, Brandywine William Sommer

A Monument to Bondage William Sommer

Adam & Eve William Sommer

Horse and Covered Cart in Town , 1921 William Sommer

Cow in Landscape, 1925 William Sommer

Summer Day, ca. 1925 William Sommer

Portrait of a Woman, ca. 1925 William Sommer

Young Artist William Sommer

Interior with Boy, c. 1930 William Sommer