William Sidney Mount Tuesday, 13 October 2009 William Sidney
Mount was born in Setauket, Long Island, and also died there,
but the center of home life for him and his family was the
Hawkins farm (now the Hawkins-Mount Homestead) in nearby Stony
Brook, which had been in his mother’s family for generations.
The property of ninety-some acres provided limitless sources of
inspiration for his art: bucolic countryside, rustic
outbuildings, a variety of farm animals, and hearty neighbors
willing to pose. Among Mount’s favorite subjects to portray were
farmers and country gentlemen — to him the backbone of
democracy. His family’s comfortable circumstances, and the early
commercial success of his paintings, allowed him the freedom to
paint when he liked and gave him an affectionate, and somewhat
rose-colored, view of country life. Mount participated in the
life of his community, but his unmarried status probably
prevented him from being fully integrated into it. His diaries
are full of accounts of boating trips, atten