William Sidney Mount

William Sidney Mount
Daguerreotype photograph of Mount
by Mathew B. Brady, c. 1855
Born November 26, 1807
Setauket, New York
Died November 19, 1868 (1868-11-20) (aged 60)
Setauket, New York
Nationality American
Known for Genre, landscape, portrait painting, and violin design

William Sidney Mount (November 26, 1807 – November 19, 1868) was an American painter best known for his genre paintings, although he also painted landscapes and portraits. He was a contemporary of the Hudson River School.

Biography

The William Sidney Mount House in Stony Brook, New York

William Mount was born in Setauket, Long Island, New York, on November 26, 1807 to Julia Ann Hawkins and Thomas Shepard Mount, her husband. He trained at the National Academy of Design in New York City, and in 1832 was made a full academician. He died in Setauket on November 19, 1868.[1]

Although he started as a history painter, Mount moved to depicting scenes from everyday life. 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).

The largest collection of his works is located in the Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages.[2]

Musical legacy

Studio of William S. Mount by Shepard Alonzo Mount

In addition to his painting, William Sidney Mount was a respected player and composer of the fiddle. He patented his own type of fiddle, the Cradle of Harmony, which had a curved hollow back that produced a sound louder than a standard violin.

William Sidney Mount House and other monuments

1867 ambrotype print

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.[3] A residential building located in the Roth Quad on the Stony Brook University campus is named after him.

Family

His brother, Shepard Alonzo Mount (1804–1868), also an artist, best known as a portrait painter, became a National Academician in 1842.[1]

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 Chisholm 1911.
  2. ↑ http://www.longislandmuseum.org/about.asp
  3. ↑ "Q174". nyc.gov. 23 December 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
Attribution
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Mount, William Sidney". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Further reading

  • Christopher J. Smith, The Creolization of American Culture: William Sidney Mount and the Roots of Blackface Minstrelsy. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2013.
  • Frankenstein, Alfred. William Sidney Mount. New York: Abrams, 1975.
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