SOLD Nocturne

Born in Detroit in 1867, William Sommer was a lithographer by trade. The son of German immigrants, he briefly studied at an art academy in Germany before moving to New York and then to Cleveland, where he accepted a position at the Otis Lithograph Company. Fellow lithographer, Abel Warshawsky, taught Sommer the fundamentals of Impressionism—a style Sommer practiced from 1910–1912. Another local lithographer, William Zorach, later provided key inspiration for Sommer’s Post-Impressionist work, as seen in his large, flat areas of vivid color and streamlined forms. In 1911, Sommer co-founded the Kokoon Arts Club, an artists group in Cleveland dedicated