William Sidney Mount

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(b Setauket, NY, 26 Nov 1807; d Setauket, 18 Nov 1868). American painter. America's first major genre painter and one of the most accomplished of his era (rivalled only by George Caleb Bingham), he spent most of his life on rural Long Island. He was apprenticed as a sign painter in 1825 to his brother, Henry Mount (1802-41), in New York. In 1826, frustrated by the limitations of sign painting, he enrolled for drawing classes at the newly established National Academy of Design, where he aspired to be a painter of historical subjects. His first efforts in painting were portraits; the historical scenes that followed, such as Saul and the Witch of Endor (1828; Washington, DC, N. Mus. Amer. A.), were similarly linear, flat and brightly coloured. In 1827 he returned to live on Long Island, and from then onwards he alternated between the city and the country. He began to make the yeomen of Long Island his subject-matter, perhaps inspired by the popularity of engravings after David Wilkie and 17th-century genre painters.

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William Sidney Mount (1807-1868), one of America's first and best anecdotal painters, portrayed rural life on Long Island.

William Sidney Mount was born on Nov. 26, 1807, at Setauket, Long Island. He worked on the family farm at Stony Brook until 1824, when he was apprenticed to his older brother Henry, a sign and ornamental painter in New York City. About the same time, another older brother became a fellow apprentice. All three brothers soon became painters. William, who had begun drawing on his own in 1825, studied for a short time with Henry Inman, a leading portrait painter, but lack of funds, ill health, and his desire to be original made him return home in 1827. The following year he painted his first likeness, a stiff, naive painting of himself holding a flute. Next he executed his first figure painting on a religious theme, which was greatly influenced by Benjamin West.

In 1829 Mount moved back to New York and resumed his studies. The following year he painted his first genre subject, the Rustic Dance, which was exhibited at the National Academy of Design and praised for its novelty, realism, and humor. In 1832 he was elected to the academy and for 33 years exhibited there regularly.

From 1829 to 1836 Mount spent most of his time painting portraits in New York City. He made remarkable progress as an artist. In 1836 he painted two canvases for the famous early collector Luman Reed. One of these, Bargaining for a Horse, is among Mount's finest works. Finely composed and deftly painted, it combines humor, warmth, and keen observation.

In 1837 Mount returned home, leaving only for brief trips to New York City. Unlike many American artists of his time, he did not travel to Europe, and unlike his brothers, he never married. He preferred life at Stony Brook, where he could paint familiar scenes and people. His paintings show a fondness for African Americans, music, and children. Through numerous engravings and color lithographs made in America and France, his work reached a wide audience.

In spite of the popularity of his genre subjects, Mount's main source of income was his portraits, which usually lack the warmth and vitality of his narrative paintings. Although he devoted more than 30 years to painting, his output was relatively small - no more than 200 canvases. This is because he developed an idea of a painting very slowly, was painstaking in each detail, and sometimes did not paint for several months.

About 1860 Mount designed a portable studio and home on wheels which was drawn by horses. He spent much time during his last years in this unique conveyance, but he painted very little because of declining health. He died on Nov. 19, 1868, at Setauket.

Further Reading

Bartlett Cowdrey and Hermann W. Williams, Jr., William Sidney Mount (1944), contains a life of the artist, a catalog of his genre and landscape paintings, and valuable research material. Since 1944 additional paintings have been located, many of which are included in an exhibition catalog of Mount's work by Alfred Frankenstein, Painter of Rural America: William Sidney Mount, 1807-1868 (1968). This catalog also contains passages from Mount's own writings, most of which have not been published before.

William Sidney Mount

The Painter's Triumph, 1838

William Sidney Mount (November 26, 1807 – November 19, 1868) born in Setauket, New York was a renowned genre painter and contemporary of the Hudson River School. Mount trained at the National Academy of Design in New York. Two of his more famous paintings are Eel Spearing at Setauket (1845, New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown) and Bargaining for a Horse (1835, New-York Historical Society, New York City). Beginning as a history painter, Mount moved to depicting scenes from everyday life. The largest collection of his works is located in The Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages

His home and studio, the William Sidney Mount House, is a National Historic Landmark. One of the local elementary schools in The Three Village Central School District is named in his honor, as is PS 174 elementary school in Rego Park, Queens. A residential building is named after him on the Stony Brook University campus.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: William Sidney Mount

• Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages, in particular see Our Heritage: The World of William Sidney Mount (Word doc)
•  "Mount, William Sidney". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. 

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