Otto Sommer (dates unknown )

According to one source, “Beginning his career in Munich, Otto Sommer later emigrated to America where his painting style and subject matter was much influenced by Albert Bierstadt. Apparently Sommer carried his fascination with the central European mountains to the United States.”

“He exhibited at the National Academy of Design from 1862 to 1866. There is confusion about his name and whether or not Otto Sommer and Otto Sommers are the same person. Works by Sommers are at the U.S. Capitol, but the New Jersey Historical Society has work by Sommer.”(1)

Sommer was at some point a resident of Newark, New Jersey; the two paintings shown below were both painted there.

(1) AskArt.com (see link below).

Sources:

Who Was Who in American Art by Peter Falk

Butterfields Auction Catalogue 12/12/2001

The Voyage of Life: Youth (after Thomas Cole)

The Voyage of Life: Youth (after Thomas Cole), oil on canvas, 26 1/8 by 36 1/8, signed lower right and inscribed

The Voyage of Life: Old Age (after Thomas Cole), oil on canvas, 26 by 36 inches, signed lower right and inscribed "Newark N.J."

The two paintings above are copies after allegorical landscapes by Thomas Cole, the well-known leader of the Hudson River School. The canvases are titled “Youth” and “Old Age,” and represent two of a series of four canvases titled “The Voyage of Life.” Cole’s original series was painted in 1840, but Sommers’s copies – probably based on engravings – were created later in the 19th century.

Working generally in the Hudson River School style, Sommers painted several of the sites visited by the members of that group, including Lake George; West Point; and Conway, New Hampshire. He also painted more generic bucolic landscapes as well as Alpine mountain scenery.(1)

(1) AskArt.com (see link below).