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The Power of Music
William Sidney Mount1847
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
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.
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Details
- Title: The Power of Music
- Creator: William Sidney Mount (American, 1807–1868)
- Date Created: 1847
- Physical 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.)
- Provenance: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, (James H. Maroney, Jr., Leicester, VT, and Christie's, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art), The Century Association, New York, NY, Gideon Lee, Jr. [1824-1894], Carmel, NY?, Mrs. Gideon Lee [d. 1870], Geneva, NY, probably by descent to her stepson, Gideon Lee, Jr., Charles M. Leupp [1807-1859], New York, NY, Laura (Mrs. Gideon) Lee [1800-1870], Geneva, NY, to her son-in-law, Charles M. Leupp
- Type: Painting
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1991.110
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Inscriptions: signed lower left: Wm S. MOUNT. / 1847
- Fun Fact: Mount was an accomplished fiddle player and even patented a new design for the instrument.
- Department: American Painting and Sculpture
- Culture: America, 19th century
- Credit Line: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund
- Collection: American - Painting
- Accession Number: 1991.110
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