Monday, October 13, 2025

William Sommer

Anonymous Photographer
William Sommer
ca. 1940
gelatin silver print
Archives of American Art, Washington DC


William Sommer
Self Portrait
before 1949
drawing
Smithsonian American Art Museum,
Washington DC

William Sommer
Watercolor
before 1949
watercolor on paper
Smithsonian American Art Museum,
Washington DC

William Sommer
Arrangement IV
1936
watercolor and ink on paper
(WPA Project)
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

William Sommer
Study of Horses
ca. 1935
watercolor and ink on paper
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

William Sommer
Tree with Rooftop
before 1949
drawing
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

William Sommer
Still Life
before 1949
drawing
Smithsonian American Art Museum,
Washington DC

William Sommer
Tubes in Landscape
1925
oil on board
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC

William Sommer
Portrait of Martha Sommer
ca. 1927
watercolor and ink on paper
Akron Art Museum, Ohio

William Sommer
Portrait of Miss Eunice Merton
1944
watercolor and ink on paper
Akron Art Museum, Ohio

William Sommer
Study of a Girl
before 1949
drawing
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

William Sommer
Pitcher and Bowl
before 1949
drawing
Smithsonian American Art Museum,
Washington DC

William Sommer
Seated Boy
ca. 1933
watercolor and ink on paper
Akron Art Museum, Ohio

William Sommer
Seated Boy
ca. 1940
watercolor, gouache and ink on paper
Princeton University Art, Museum

William Sommer
Figure Studies
1929
watercolor and ink on paper
Akron Art Museum, Ohio

William Sommer
Figure Study
before 1949
drawing
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

William Sommer
Portrait of artist Rolf Stoll
ca. 1925
oil on board
Akron-Art-Museum-Ohio

from The Thebiad

The fatal Hour arrives so rashly sought,
With Horror, Sorrow, Blood and Carnage fraught;
And Death, from Chains and Stygian Darkness freed,
Enjoys the Light, and stalking o'er the Mead,
Expands his Jaws, and to his Arms invites
The Men of Worth, but vulgar Triumphs slights.
He marks the Chiefs who most deserve their Life,
The first in Arms and foremost in the Strife;
Of these, scarce number'd with the mighty dead,
The Fiends rapacious snatch the vital Thread.
Mars occupies the Centre of the Field,
His Javelin dry; where'er he turns his Shield,
The fatal Touch crazes from the Mind
Wives, Children, Home, and leaves a  Blank behind.
The Love of Life too flies among the rest,
The last that lingers in the human Breast.
Wrath sits suspended on their thirsty Spears,
And half unsheath'd each angry Blade appears.
The Helmets tremble, formidably gay
With nodding Crests, and shed a gloomy Ray.

– Statius (AD 45-96), translated by William Lewis (1767)