Description
Set in rural Long Island before the Civil War, Mount's complex painting presents an African American laborer listening intently to a fiddle tune enjoyed by white men. While a love of music unites the figures in a bond of shared humanity, the two races occupy different spaces--one inside, one outside, both separated by a barn door--effectively symbolizing the pronounced divisions in America at the time.
Provenance
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio (1991-); (James H. Maroney, Jr., Leicester, VT, and Christie's, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) (1990-1991); The Century Association, New York, NY (1880-1990); Gideon Lee, Jr. [1824-1894], Carmel, NY? (1870-1880); Mrs. Gideon Lee [d. 1870], Geneva, NY, probably by descent to her stepson, Gideon Lee, Jr. (1859-1870); Charles M. Leupp [1807-1859], New York, NY (-1859); Laura (Mrs. Gideon) Lee [1800-1870], Geneva, NY, to her son-in-law, Charles M. Leupp (1847-)
Accession Number
1991.110
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
Framed: 67 x 78 x 7.5 cm (26 3/8 x 30 11/16 x 2 15/16 in.); Unframed: 43.4 x 53.5 cm (17 1/16 x 21 1/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting Canvas American
Background & Context
Background Story
William Sidney Mount (1807-1868) was an American painter known for the genre scenes of rural Long Island life that make him one of the most important American genre painters of the 19th century. The Power of Music from 1847 depicts a rural scene in the narrative, observational manner that distinguishes Mount's best genre paintings from the more anecdotal work of his contemporaries. The 1847 date places this in Mount's most productive period, when he was producing the genre scenes of rural Long Island life that are his most accomplished works, and The Power of Music shows his talent for narrative composition and his democratic sympathy with ordinary rural people.
Cultural Impact
The Power of Music is important in the history of American painting because it demonstrates the narrative, observational manner that Mount brought to genre subjects as one of the most important American genre painters of the 19th century. Mount's genre scenes of rural Long Island life—combining narrative composition with democratic sympathy—represent an important tradition in American painting that documents the everyday life of ordinary Americans, and the 1847 painting shows this tradition at its most accomplished.
Why It Matters
The Power of Music is Mount's democratic genre painting: a rural scene rendered in the narrative, observational manner of one of the most important American genre painters of the 19th century. The 1847 painting shows democratic sympathy with ordinary rural people combined with narrative composition.
