MOUNT, WILLIAM SIDNEY

born Nov. 26, 1807, Setauket, Long Island, N.Y., U.S. died Nov. 19, 1868, Setauket American genre painter who mainly depicted rustic life in his native Long Island. He was one of the first and best 19th-century American anecdotal painters. A farm boy until age 17, Mount apprenticed himself to his older brother Henry, a sign painter working in New York. They were joined by another brother, Shepard Alonzo (180468), who eventually became a portrait painter. In 1826, when the National Academy of Design opened drawing classes, Mount was one of its first students. He stayed only a year before returning to Setauket, where he continued painting and exhibiting his work. He became an associate member of the design academy in 1832 and a full member in 1833. Mount began by painting historical subjects. His first genre painting, The Rustic Dance (1830), was an immediate success, and Mount never departed from this vein. His genial portrayals of country lifea blend of affection and humourare a valuable record of a bygone agrarian age. The recognizable situations and the detailed representational character of Mount's paintings struck a responsive chord in Victorian America. Mount did not sentimentalize but portrayed the relationship of his subjects with naturalness and simplicity.