Giorgio Sommer

Italian, 1834-1914

Birth LocationGermany

BiographyGiorgio Sommer (1834-1914), a German-born Italian photographer, opened a studio in Naples in 1857 that initially supplied tourists with photographs of picturesque views of Neapolitan, Roman and Pompeiian landscapes and archaeological ruins and subsequently of other famous European sites. Distinguished for their high quality, Sommer’s dynamic compositions are characterized not only by their descriptive clarity but also by their gold toning, which provided fine gradations of tone.

Combined with his photographic talent, Sommer also possessed remarkable business skills that propelled his firm to great financial success and acclaim throughout Europe. Nourished by the Pompeiian and Herculaneum excavation finds, he took advantage of the renewed interest in the ancient world and became a pioneer in the field of archaeological surveying. Marketing his photographs throughout Italy and the rest of Europe, he developed a network of professional contacts, exhibited his works in international exhibitions and published them in newspapers and periodicals. In the late 1870s, he also began to make cast-metal replicas of ancient artifacts that gained him further popularity throughout Europe. He regularly traveled abroad, most notably to Switzerland, (see Lion of Lucerne) where he received a commission from the Swiss government to photograph the extension of their railway network from 1880-90. Embracing the inhabitants of his adopted land, Sommer also produced photographic genre scenes that depicted working class Neapolitan life in an uplifting and idealized manner, which were popular with middle-class and aristocratic tourists.

For his efforts, Sommer, along with his colleague Edmondo Behles (1841-1921), was bestowed the title Photographer of His Majesty the King of Italy by Vittorio Emanuele II in 1865. He was awarded medals at the International Exhibitions of London (1862), Paris (1867), Vienna (1873), and Nuremburg (1885). Two years after his death in 1914, his firm closed and his negatives were destroyed.

In addition to the Toledo Museum of Art’s collection, Sommer’s work can also be found at the MFA, Boston, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Legion of Honor Museum, San Francisco; Art Institute of Chicago; Minneapolis Institute of Arts; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Musée d’Art Classique de Mougins, France; and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, among other collections.

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