ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
William Sidney Mount was born on November 26, 1807, in Setauket, Long Island. He first apprenticed to his brother Henry, a sign and ornamental painter in NYC in 1824. At the same time he studied with Henry Inman in NYC. He then studied at the National Art Institute, becoming one of their first students.
Mount was considered one of the leading genre painters of the 19th century and he was most famous of the trio of artists of his brothers,
He spent most of his boyhood at Stonybrook, Long Island. His first genre painting, “Rustic Dance After a Sleighride” was shown at The National Art Institute in 1830
to great praise and helped to establish his reputation. His strongest body of work emerged in the 1830s with a succession of genre paintings. These works elicited much discussion and comment in the popular press.
His appeal was especially strong to NYC patrons. In 1868 his agent, William Shaus of Goupil Vibert & Co sent mount’s painting to Paris to be engraved, marking the first formal recognition of American art in Europe.
Mount was a full member of the National Art Institute in 1832 and exhibited frequently from 1828 to 1868. He also exhibit at the Brooklyn Art Academy from 1863 to 1866
as well at The Pennsylvania Association of Fine Art in 1840 and again from 1842 to 1843, 1847 as well as retrospective at the New York Historical Society in 1998.
William Sidney Mount died on November 19, 1868. Today his paintings can be found at several important museums including the Brooklyn Museum of Fine Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.