Attr: William Sidney Mount Listed Artist Antique Oil Portrait C19th
Item History & Price
Attr: William Sidney Mount (c1807-1868) Listed American Artist Antique Original Oil Portrait c19th Century Gold Gilded Wood Frame. This painting was acquired at a estate auction. From the paper affixed to back and is said to be and done or attributed to Mount (NO GUARANTEE). Also said to have been on the Antique Road Show July 14th, 2001. I have researched it and could not find but that is not to say it is not true. Thi...s portrait has been relined and mounted on board. It also looks to have restoration Or and restored!. It is Not signed. Is ready to hang!. MEASURES: Framed- 35 1/2" x 30 1/2" - Unframed- 29 1/2" x 25". THIS IS A BEST OFFER ITEM! ALL OFFERS WITHIN REASON ARE CONSIDERED! PLEASE MAKE OFFERS! PLEASE WAIT FOR INVOICE!
Born on a farm in Setauket, Long Island, William Mount became what arthistorian Matthew Baigell described as the "foremost American genrepainter." When other artists were trying to copy Europeanacademic subjects of history, religion, and literature, he stayed inAmerica and focused on the daily lives of East Coast people.
Manyof his paintings expressed moralistic and political views, and he wasalso the first major American artists to portray black people withdignity although he opposed abolition of slavery. Because of hishumble subject matter and skillful realistic execution, he was wellreceived by an American public of the era of Jacksoniandemocracy. His serene agrarian paintings were also a welcomecontrast to the increasing complexities of the Industrial Revolution.
Hehad a long-time studio at Stony Brook on Long Island, and many yearslater a local man, Ward Melville, established a collection honoringMount, the first significant American-born painter to devote most ofhis profession to genre painting.
He was raised on theSetauket farm, and when his father died, Mount, age 7, was sent to livewith relatives. He served an apprenticeship in his brother's signpainting shop in New York City. He studied engraving, and in1826, was one of the first students of drawing at the National Academywhere his primary subject was history painting. But the nextyear, ill health caused him to return to Setauket where from 1830, hespent the remainder of his life doing genre paintings of hiscontemporaries. However, his portrait painting became his earliestlivelihood, and he also did local landscapes as well as still lifes.
Asa genre painter, he did numerous scenes of everyday and commonplacelife, skillfully executed with meticulous detail and painstakingglazing. The focus of his work was the "American-ness of the newcountry's culture" (American Art Review 12/98).
Althoughhe never traveled to Europe, he became the first American painter to beknown widely there because of his lithography pieces, thanks to New YorkerWilliam Schaus who worked with a European dealer, were circulatedthroughout Europe. Part of their popularity was the fact that blacksand their place in American society were included as subjects, reflecting the racial tensions of the late 1850s and 1860s.
Hedied suddenly in 1868, an artist appreciated by his contemporaries forthe timeliness of his subject matter but lauded by later generationsfor the clarity and precise execution of his canvases.
A special exhibition curated by Deborah Johnson and titled William Sidney Mount: Painter of American Life, was held in 1999 and organized by the Museums at Stony Brook, New York, and the American Federation of Arts.
Sources include:
Matthew Baigell, Dictionary of American Art
David Michael Zellman, Three Hundred Years of American Art
William Sidney Mount grew up on a farm in Setauket, Long Island, andwas the first American-born genre painter of significance to depict thedaily lives and tasks of the average citizen. He worked during atime when other artists emulated the European academic tradition ofpainting historical, religious, or literary scenes, yet Mount remainedsteadfast and depicted rural American subjects in a realistic style.
Mount was influenced by the artwork of British genre artists Hogarthand Wilkie, whose engravings were popular in the United States. However, Mount's scenes are undoubtedly American in subject, such as Rustic Dance After a Sleigh Ride, exhibited at the National Academy of Design. Mount's paintingswere popular among the growing number of newly rich collectors, many ofwhom came from country towns such as those that Mount painted.
Mount's best-known patron was Luman Reed, who offered to pay for Mountto study art in Europe. Mount declined "for fear I might beinduced by the splendor of European art to tarry too long, and thuslose my nationality. We have nature, it speaks to every one and whatefforts I have made in art have been appreciated by my countrymen."
While a boy, Mount recalled that his curiosity with painting was piquedwhen his younger sister Ruth began painting lessons at home. Hisoldest brother Henry was the first member of the Mount family to make aliving as an artist, and William first trained as his apprentice. From 1826 to 1827 Mount was among the first students to study art atthe National Academy of Design in New York City.
In 1829 Mount and another brother, Shepard set up a studio and paintedportraits. In 1830, he returned to Stony Brook, Long Island, where he lived and painted for the remainder of his life. Mount'ssuccess spread nationally and internationally with the reproduction ofhis paintings into popular prints and later into color lithographspublished by the French firm, Goupil and Company. His paintings arehoused in numerous public collections, including The MetropolitanMuseum of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and the Stony BrookMuseum of American Art.
Through his choice of subjects and manner of execution, William SidneyMount created genre paintings that helped establish the aestheticvocabulary for nineteenth-century American genre painting. Bornat Setauket, Long Island, on 26 November 1807, Mount traveled little insearch of subjects. Instead, he mined the visual riches of hislocale and spent his whole life in the town of his birth.
As a young man he worked as an apprentice for his brother Henry, a signpainter and limner. An older brother, Shepard Alonzo Mount(1804-1868), was also a painter, and he specialized in portraits. William Sidney Mount studied painting with Henry Inman and was a memberof the inaugural class of the art school of the National Academy ofDesign.
Mount's Rustic Dance after a Sleighride was exhibited atthe National Academy of Design in 1830 and achieved considerablepopularity. From that time until the end of his life, he paintedscenes of country life, men and women at work and recreation, and otheractivities of his neighbors on Long Island.
Mount was one of the first Americans to depict African Americans in hispaintings. These sold well and he supplied American and Europeanmarkets with many works similar to his signature piece, The Banjo Player (1858), in the collection of the Suffolk County Museum.
An accomplished musician, Mount composed and published songbooks andinvented the "Cradle of Harmony" violin. Musical events andperformers like the banjo player were frequent subjects of hispaintings.
William Sidney Mount died in his hometown, Setauket, Long Island, 19November 1868. His paintings are found in the collections of theMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the ArtInstitute of Chicago, and other major museums in the United States.
Born on a farm in Setauket, Long Island, William Mount became what arthistorian Matthew Baigell described as the "foremost American genrepainter." When other artists were trying to copy Europeanacademic subjects of history, religion, and literature, he stayed inAmerica and focused on the daily lives of East Coast people.
Manyof his paintings expressed moralistic and political views, and he wasalso the first major American artists to portray black people withdignity although he opposed abolition of slavery. Because of hishumble subject matter and skillful realistic execution, he was wellreceived by an American public of the era of Jacksoniandemocracy. His serene agrarian paintings were also a welcomecontrast to the increasing complexities of the Industrial Revolution.
Hehad a long-time studio at Stony Brook on Long Island, and many yearslater a local man, Ward Melville, established a collection honoringMount, the first significant American-born painter to devote most ofhis profession to genre painting.
He was raised on theSetauket farm, and when his father died, Mount, age 7, was sent to livewith relatives. He served an apprenticeship in his brother's signpainting shop in New York City. He studied engraving, and in1826, was one of the first students of drawing at the National Academywhere his primary subject was history painting. But the nextyear, ill health caused him to return to Setauket where from 1830, hespent the remainder of his life doing genre paintings of hiscontemporaries. However, his portrait painting became his earliestlivelihood, and he also did local landscapes as well as still lifes.
Asa genre painter, he did numerous scenes of everyday and commonplacelife, skillfully executed with meticulous detail and painstakingglazing. The focus of his work was the "American-ness of the newcountry's culture" (American Art Review 12/98).
Althoughhe never traveled to Europe, he became the first American painter to beknown widely there because of his lithography pieces, thanks to New YorkerWilliam Schaus who worked with a European dealer, were circulatedthroughout Europe. Part of their popularity was the fact that blacksand their place in American society were included as subjects, reflecting the racial tensions of the late 1850s and 1860s.
Hedied suddenly in 1868, an artist appreciated by his contemporaries forthe timeliness of his subject matter but lauded by later generationsfor the clarity and precise execution of his canvases.
A special exhibition curated by Deborah Johnson and titled William Sidney Mount: Painter of American Life, was held in 1999 and organized by the Museums at Stony Brook, New York, and the American Federation of Arts.
Sources include:
Matthew Baigell, Dictionary of American Art
David Michael Zellman, Three Hundred Years of American Art
William Sidney Mount grew up on a farm in Setauket, Long Island, andwas the first American-born genre painter of significance to depict thedaily lives and tasks of the average citizen. He worked during atime when other artists emulated the European academic tradition ofpainting historical, religious, or literary scenes, yet Mount remainedsteadfast and depicted rural American subjects in a realistic style.
Mount was influenced by the artwork of British genre artists Hogarthand Wilkie, whose engravings were popular in the United States. However, Mount's scenes are undoubtedly American in subject, such as Rustic Dance After a Sleigh Ride, exhibited at the National Academy of Design. Mount's paintingswere popular among the growing number of newly rich collectors, many ofwhom came from country towns such as those that Mount painted.
Mount's best-known patron was Luman Reed, who offered to pay for Mountto study art in Europe. Mount declined "for fear I might beinduced by the splendor of European art to tarry too long, and thuslose my nationality. We have nature, it speaks to every one and whatefforts I have made in art have been appreciated by my countrymen."
While a boy, Mount recalled that his curiosity with painting was piquedwhen his younger sister Ruth began painting lessons at home. Hisoldest brother Henry was the first member of the Mount family to make aliving as an artist, and William first trained as his apprentice. From 1826 to 1827 Mount was among the first students to study art atthe National Academy of Design in New York City.
In 1829 Mount and another brother, Shepard set up a studio and paintedportraits. In 1830, he returned to Stony Brook, Long Island, where he lived and painted for the remainder of his life. Mount'ssuccess spread nationally and internationally with the reproduction ofhis paintings into popular prints and later into color lithographspublished by the French firm, Goupil and Company. His paintings arehoused in numerous public collections, including The MetropolitanMuseum of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and the Stony BrookMuseum of American Art.
Through his choice of subjects and manner of execution, William SidneyMount created genre paintings that helped establish the aestheticvocabulary for nineteenth-century American genre painting. Bornat Setauket, Long Island, on 26 November 1807, Mount traveled little insearch of subjects. Instead, he mined the visual riches of hislocale and spent his whole life in the town of his birth.
As a young man he worked as an apprentice for his brother Henry, a signpainter and limner. An older brother, Shepard Alonzo Mount(1804-1868), was also a painter, and he specialized in portraits. William Sidney Mount studied painting with Henry Inman and was a memberof the inaugural class of the art school of the National Academy ofDesign.
Mount's Rustic Dance after a Sleighride was exhibited atthe National Academy of Design in 1830 and achieved considerablepopularity. From that time until the end of his life, he paintedscenes of country life, men and women at work and recreation, and otheractivities of his neighbors on Long Island.
Mount was one of the first Americans to depict African Americans in hispaintings. These sold well and he supplied American and Europeanmarkets with many works similar to his signature piece, The Banjo Player (1858), in the collection of the Suffolk County Museum.
An accomplished musician, Mount composed and published songbooks andinvented the "Cradle of Harmony" violin. Musical events andperformers like the banjo player were frequent subjects of hispaintings.
William Sidney Mount died in his hometown, Setauket, Long Island, 19November 1868. His paintings are found in the collections of theMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the ArtInstitute of Chicago, and other major museums in the United States.
