(Detroit, Michigan, 1867 - 1949, Northfield Center, Ohio)
c. 1915
Oil on board
24 x 30 in. (61.0 x 76.2 cm)
Collection of the Akron Art Museum
Purchased, by exchange, with funds from Mr. and Mrs. William J. Laub, Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Reed II and Mr. J. Frederick Seiberling
2004.59
Sommer painted this landscape, which may be his best early work, shortly after he visited the famed Armory Show of modern art (either in New York or Chicago) in 1913. There he saw works by French Fauve painters such as Henri Matisse. Thrilled by the Fauves’ use of bright color and free application of paint, Sommer began to render his own landscapes with large areas of brilliant color and rounded, simplified forms.