November Birthday Artist: William Sidney Mount

Posted by Meg Nola Nov 23, 2008

William Sidney Mount was born on Long Island, New York on November 26, 1807, back when Long Island was a very rural place. Mount went to art school in Manhattan and would find many patrons of his work in urban New York, but he decidedly preferred life in Setauket and Stony Brook, Long Island, finding the area less chaotic and more conducive to artistic inspiration.

Mount was one of America’s first genre painters, and while he had the chance to study in Europe, he opted not to. He wasn’t outrightly rebelling against European art and in fact kept many volumes on the subject in his personal library, but he was afraid that if he did travel abroad, he might never return. Mount wanted to show true American society in his own artwork, especially scenes of farming and barn dancing and the local color of the region he had originally come from.

Among the interesting facts about William Sidney Mount are that he loved to include musicians in his paintings and was himself an accomplished fiddler. He even invented a unique violin to be heard above the rowdy whooping and foot-stomping of barn dances -- the fiddle was called the “Cradle of Harmony” and had a concave or hollow back for increased resonance. Mount also wrote a couple of songs and came up with his own design for a portable studio/horse and carriage, to allow him to travel around the countryside in search of inspiration. He was able to enjoy a comfortable level of success and watch his work become popular, and one of his paintings -- Long Island Farmer Husking Corn -- ended up on actual bank note currency.

Mount died in 1868, following the pursuit of a life full of painting, drawing, reading, fiddling, flute playing, inventing and otherwise interacting with the world around him. Furthermore, before his death he claimed to be in touch spiritually with those beyond the grave, particularly the great Rembrandt. All of Rembrandt’s wisdom aside, however, Mount’s general advice to himself and other artists was to keep to one‘s true vision and “Follow the bent of your own mind—do not paint to order."