The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 27, 2024

Artist's Studio (verso)

Artist's Studio (verso)

1927
(American, 1867–1949)
America, Ohio, Cleveland
watercolor and pen and blue-black ink
Sheet: 53 x 72.1 cm (20 7/8 x 28 3/8 in.)
Gift of Joseph M. Erdelac 2004.51.b
Location: not on view

Description

This unusual combination of figures (one woman holds her arms as if playing a guitar, but there is no instrument in her hands) appears to depict an artist’s studio. It is among the most mysterious paintings ever produced by Sommer, one of Cleveland’s pioneering modernists. His apprentice at the Morgan Lithography Company, the American painter and sculptor William Zorach, paid homage to Sommer with this statement: "From him I learned the difference between a real artist and a commercial artist - and the idealism which is the basis of the true artist."
  • {{cite web|title=Artist's Studio (verso)|url=false|author=William Sommer|year=1927|access-date=27 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2004.51.b