William Sonntag (American, 1822-1900) was born in East Liberty, Pennsylvania in 1822. He was one of the central figures of the Hudson River School. His early landscapes were made on painting excursions from Cincinnati into the Ohio River Valley, Kentucky, and West Virginia. He also collaborated with John C. Wolfe on a large panorama of Milton’s Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. After his return from Europe in 1857, he settled in NYC, exhibited extensively, and became known for his romantic American and Italian landscapes. His painting "The Blue Ridge from Near Luray" was engraved by R. Hinshelwood and published in the Ladies Repository, 1869. He was the father of artist William Louis Sonntag, Jr.

Studied

Cincinnati Art Academy with G.Frankenstein; in Florence, Italy, 1855-56

Member

ANA, 1860; NA; AWCS; Artists Fund Soc.; Am. Art Union

Exhibited

PAFA Ann., 1853-69, 1876-80; 1887-89; NAD, 1861-1900; Brooklyn AA, 1862-86, 1891; Phila. AC; AWCS; AIC; Boston AC; Omaha Expo, 1898

Work

NMAA; CGA; Peabody Institute; Berkshire Mus.; Brooklyn Mus.; Chrysler Mus.; Norfolk, VA; Fogg Mus.; Harvard Univ.; Vassar College Art Gallery; Cincinnati AM

Resources

G&W; WW98; Art Annual, II, obit.; CAB; Clement and Hutton; Cist, Cincinnati in 1851; Ohio BD 1853; Cowdrey, NAD; Cowdrey, AA & AAU; Rutledge, PA; N.Y. Herald; Cincinnati Painters of the Golden Age; Falk, Exh. Record Series