William Sidney Mount
William Sidney Mount was a 19th-century American genre painter who achieved fame in the U.S. and Europe as a painter who chronicled rural life on Long Island, which we see in today's painting.
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.
An interesting fact is that Mount was an accomplished fiddle player and even patented a new design for the instrument.
We present today's work thanks to the Cleveland Museum of Art. : )
P.S. Have you ever wondered how to show music in paintings? Here are the best depictions of music in art!