WILLIAM SIDNEY MOUNT (American 1807-1868)

Description

WILLIAM SIDNEY MOUNT (American 1807-1868)
Portrait of Julia Ann Seabury, 1846
Oil on panel
8in. x 6.75in.
Inscribed on verso: Painted by/ Wm S Mount/ 1846
Provenance: by descent in the artist's family; [Christies East, Wednesday, November 4, 2000 lot 1]; Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York

The subject of the present work is the artist's niece, daughter of Ruth Mount Seabury and Charles Saltonstall Seabury. William Sidney Mount grew up on a farm in Setauket, Long Island, and was the first American-born genre painter of significance to depict the daily lives and tasks of the average citizen. He worked during a time when other artists emulated the European academic tradition of painting historical, religious, or literary scenes, yet Mount remained steadfast and depicted rural American subjects in a skillful, realistic style.

Mount was influenced by the artwork of British genre artists Hogarth and 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 paintings were popular among the growing number of newly rich collectors, many of whom came from country towns such as those that Mount painted.

Mount's best-known patron was Luman Reed, who offered to pay for Mount to study art in Europe. Mount declined "for fear I might be induced by the splendor of European art to tarry too long, and thus lose my nationality. We have nature, it speaks to every one and what efforts I have made in art have been appreciated by my countrymen." While a boy, Mount recalled that his curiosity with painting was piqued when his younger sister Ruth began painting lessons at home. His oldest brother Henry was the first member of the Mount family to make a living as an artist and William first trained as his apprentice. From 1826 to 1827 Mount was among the first students to study art at the National Academy of Design in New York City.

In 1829 Mount and another brother, Shepard set up a studio and painted portraits. In 1830, he returned to Stony Brook, Long Island, where he lived and painted for the remainder of his life. Mount's success spread nationally and internationally with the reproduction of his paintings into popular prints and later into color lithographs published by the French firm, Goupil and Company. His paintings are housed in numerous public collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and the Stony Brook Museum of American Art.

Condition: Unframed when examined. Restored frame rub bottom middle to right corner and upper right corner. It has strips of wood attached to the right and left sides. Minor areas of inpaint in left background.

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